What's the point in private health insurance (rant)
Jul 14th 2010, 6:12 am
#61
Joined: Jan 2005
Location: Asia Pacific
Posts: 4,922
Re: What's the point in private health insurance (rant)
Jul 15th 2010, 1:29 am
#68
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 4,555
Re: What's the point in private health insurance (rant)
Different hospitals work in different ways. For us we have had continuity of care due to private in public. Poor administration and underfunding plagues the public sector. We just found out a load of my sons blood tests had gone missing. The mail room had gone on strike neglecting to tell anyone.
A couple of months ago, my child was admitted as an emergency patient into the public children's hospital in Perth. We had the option of having my child admitted as a private patient rather than a public one, but the only difference was that we would be given a book of vouchers to buy food in the hospital canteen.
It wouldn't have got us a private room, a specialist overseeing medical care, or anything else. We were told that the hospital benefitted because they received funds from the private health fund. Our experience was that the hospital didn't deserve any of that money. The hospital didn't provide the care that my child needed, not in emergency, the ward or post-discharge.
If we didn't have private health cover, we wouldn't have been able to access the care he needed afterwards. We have had to pay the gap, though, and fund his recovery ourselves, before getting the refund from the private cover.
It wouldn't have got us a private room, a specialist overseeing medical care, or anything else. We were told that the hospital benefitted because they received funds from the private health fund. Our experience was that the hospital didn't deserve any of that money. The hospital didn't provide the care that my child needed, not in emergency, the ward or post-discharge.
If we didn't have private health cover, we wouldn't have been able to access the care he needed afterwards. We have had to pay the gap, though, and fund his recovery ourselves, before getting the refund from the private cover.
Jul 15th 2010, 7:34 am
#69
BE Forum Addict
Joined: Nov 2007
Location: Scotland
Posts: 3,337
Re: What's the point in private health insurance (rant)
The reality is that private health cover in Oz is, like a lot of things here, a complete rip off.
