Working in the States
Dec 16th 2010, 4:12 pm
#46
Account Closed
Joined: Mar 2004
Posts: 2
Dec 17th 2010, 11:57 am
#47
Lost in BE Cyberspace
Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 6,039
Re: Working in the States
I just want to, once and for all, try and bust this myth (well partially bust it anyway).
Australia has both public and private health insurance covers. Public / govt health insurance has a cost and only covers you for non elective procedures. Yes, for common illnesses you are covered. HOWEVER. It has a cost.
For a couple with no kids earning 150k, you will be forced to pay 1.5% i.e. 1500 a year. 150K is considered rich by Australian govt so you will have to pay another 1% as surcharge i.e total 2.5% = $315 a month. This will ONLY cover you for common illnesses and none of the major surgeries.
Australia has both public and private health insurance covers. Public / govt health insurance has a cost and only covers you for non elective procedures. Yes, for common illnesses you are covered. HOWEVER. It has a cost.
For a couple with no kids earning 150k, you will be forced to pay 1.5% i.e. 1500 a year. 150K is considered rich by Australian govt so you will have to pay another 1% as surcharge i.e total 2.5% = $315 a month. This will ONLY cover you for common illnesses and none of the major surgeries.
Sure, minor elective surgery has a waiting list, but the big city hospital wait times are often fine. Here's my local hospital's waiting times for example: http://www.myhospitals.gov.au/hospit...omens-hospital
The way to avoid the surcharge would be to have “private health insurance”. Lot of people end up taking the pvt health insurance so they don’t have to pay 1% surcharge and also get better coverage.
Now, the pvt health insurance totally depends on what type of cover you wanted. For a basic hospital cover my wife and I were paying around $225 a month. NOTE, this is after tax dollars so to convert that to before tax dollars and add it to the 1.5% cost of public health insurance we get to roughly $500 a month. Remember this is before you even add kids to the plan. I compare that with what I am paying now ($300 a month) and I consider US to be financially ahead of the medical insurance in US.
Now, the pvt health insurance totally depends on what type of cover you wanted. For a basic hospital cover my wife and I were paying around $225 a month. NOTE, this is after tax dollars so to convert that to before tax dollars and add it to the 1.5% cost of public health insurance we get to roughly $500 a month. Remember this is before you even add kids to the plan. I compare that with what I am paying now ($300 a month) and I consider US to be financially ahead of the medical insurance in US.
Comparing premiums and taxation is a bit pointless given they are based on totally different taxation systems. We are all paying in so many different ways. For example as someone pointed out the US government pays far more taxpayer dollars on medicine than do countries like the UK and Australia and still has no universal healthcare.
And your private insurance premium is not tied to your job. So the $250 family cover would continue to be $250 if you lost your job. There is no cut off. People are not scared of losing health entitlements when losing their job. They are unrelated.
And if money gets tight you can drop your private insurance and still often get top notch treatment in the public system. Poor people are fully covered like everyone else.
I think Australia is lucky to have a mix of the British and USA systems - universal cover with a strong private system as well. It of course has issues like all health systems do. The US system of course would have some strengths that the Australian one doesn't. They all have good and bad.
I think one statistic is a pretty good indicator of a health system. The Life Expectancy of people born today in your country. Australia doesn't do so bad at 5th in the world so I would say our health system must be getting lots more right than it gets wrong: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...ife_expectancy
Last edited by fish.01; Dec 17th 2010 at 12:17 pm.
Dec 17th 2010, 12:15 pm
#48
Lost in BE Cyberspace
Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 6,039
Re: Working in the States
[I]...
Don’t even get me started on that. Let’s just say I am a Liberal and I believe in – who uses, should pay. Labor came in power and reduced the limit to 144k. Tell you what 144K after tax with 2 kids and a mortgage in Sydney is average money. But that’s a whole another discussion. And yes, that how Socialistic society works – not “our” society. Talking about fairness – well I agree non income earners deserve access to medicare as much as anyone else.
...
Don’t even get me started on that. Let’s just say I am a Liberal and I believe in – who uses, should pay. Labor came in power and reduced the limit to 144k. Tell you what 144K after tax with 2 kids and a mortgage in Sydney is average money. But that’s a whole another discussion. And yes, that how Socialistic society works – not “our” society. Talking about fairness – well I agree non income earners deserve access to medicare as much as anyone else.
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Dec 17th 2010, 3:20 pm
#49
Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 35,082
Re: Working in the States
This is not the place for a discussion about Australian health care.
OP, if you have a more specific question, please start a new thread.
OP, if you have a more specific question, please start a new thread.
