dotty

For us if we did not take out private health insurance, we would have had to pay some extra (tax) penalty for not having it. Its to do with High income earners. Think its $50,000 for a single, $100,000 for a family. Not very high really.

Plus theres another penalty for not taking it out, if you dont take it out by a certain age, the premiums start to 'load' when you eventually do.

Rules that twisted the arms of many a high income earner I believe Then the premiums started to go up, funny that

bondipom

Healthcare costs a lot of money. Get used to it. In the UK people are going overseas for straight forward operations so they do not have to wait. They are paying for it out of pocket.

I wonder where everyone thinks all these dollars are going to come from?

dotty

Should say however, one of the kids spent 12 days in a private hospital with some awful breathing complications, the bill was $22,000 so I dont feel its been a waste. Of course they would have got treated in a Public Hospital if we had not had private but it was so serious I am glad we had the best at that time

dotty

Its a problem in both countries. Its not a UK V OZ issue.

A good start in many countries would be to tackle health issues at the root of the problem. Self responsibility. Look at most people these days, junk food diet, processed food. Very little exercise.

Take smoking alone, what would the health service save if smokes went up to $20.00 a pack. $10.00 of that going straight to the health service. Junk food tax, why not, its rubbish it kills us so why not tax it. Plus look at how many people here get subsidised prescriptions but can afford $115 for a carton of fags.

ABCDiamond

I'm already past that magic age, so thats another reason to be apprehensive about going into it now. And we dont earn enough to be penalised, so I still feel right to be out of it, and pay for anything as its needed, hoping I don't NEED a $20,000 operation, that would wipe out the saving made over a 10 year period .
I agree thats it good for some people, I do know someone who gets back,in benefits, about 150% of what they pay almost every year.

NickyC

Dotty's quite right. You have to pay an extra 1% Medicare Levy (making your total levy 2.5%) if your income is greater than about $100,000 (not sure of the exact figure) and you DON'T have private hospital cover.

So you just have to find a basic hospital cover that's going to cost less than $1000 a year (1% of 100,000) and you're in front, plus you get the cover as a bonus!

Plus if you join a fund after the age of 30, you'll always pay a higher premium than someone who joined younger. In fact the older you are, when you join, the higher your premiums will be.
(There was a 'grace' period for all ages before they brought that one in). It's to stop people only joining funds when they're old and sick and dropping in and out of funds, depending on how they're feeling.

Obviously, the industry needs people to be paying premiums whilst they're young and healthy to fund the old and sick ones.
This method means the people who did join young are not penalised and the people who left it too late, get to pay more.

dotty

One thing about the magic age thing, it increases as you get older, surely its not much of a penalty at first? Plus if you dont arrive here untill the magic age, I believe the penalty can be waived. Best to check with the individual fund the rules are not always easy to understand.

bondipom

I believe the quality of care is comparable but I doubt speed of treatment is. I agree with you that junk food and cigarettes are a serious health issue.

Sadly John Anderson of the Country Party is in a Sugar Cane constituency and the coalition is given heavy donations by Manildra (a suger processor). This means the coalition is very sympathetic to the junk food industry and has recently changed the law to allow food products to be promoted by individual health benefits. Dieticians complain that this means packaged products with a single health benefit will be advertised and consumers will be misled into thinking they are being healthy. Instead the benefits of a healthy diet should be promoted.

My personal opinion is that cigarettes should be banned. Most smokers I know want to give up and unlike alcohol or other drugs the stuff provides no high.

The problem is that people are living longer and the treatments are costing more.

Dawn Adams

I don't know whether you can still do this, times may have changed. We were on Medicare basic which we paid for as a levy when filling in our tax return.

In addition, we took out through a fund ancilliary cover only, which took care of ambulance, dentist, optician, physio etc.