Private health care

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Originally Posted by shrek

All expenses are met by the hospital except the doctors private indemnity insurance, but we still have to pay them $210.00 per hour. Great money if you can get it.

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You can't be serious........ Before you start doctor bashing, Do you have any idea how much medical indemnity insurance costs? Do you have any idea how much time a doctor spends studying so he/she can provide you with the best possible care? Do you realise medical secretaries demand more money than a registered nurse is paid? Do you have any idea how much commercial rent costs for medical rooms?

Mate take a walk in the doctors carpark sometime....... The private hospital I work at has clapped out Magnas, astras, commodores and other non luxury cars. Yet if you look at the hospital administrators carpark (and lawyers and accountants and health fund directors) there are Mercedes and BMW's as far as the eye can see. Docotors are not soaking up your health dollars. Don't be fooled. A bed in a private hospital is up around the $1000 - $2000 bucks per day (thats just for the bed) and papers and phone calls are extra.

True. The wife's gyno has rooms in Kogarah with one full time and three part time secretaries. He told her his last indemnity policy was $100,000. That was 4 years ago when our son was born, god knows what he pays now.

In addition to that he is perpetually on call, which means he can't even have more than a glass of wine with dinner. Babies have an uncanny habit of coming along whenever they feel like it. He gets away once a year for a month on secondment as an army doctor to lovely places like Bouganville and East Timor.

Then he goes off around the country doing women's health clinics for indigenous women. He looks after drug dependant women free of charge, even though they rip him off as soon as he leaves the room.

Add to that he is single-handedly responsible for the existence of our two kids (OK, I played my part in it but that was the easy bit, oh and let's not forget the missus :D ).

Nah, I don't begrudge him the money he gets and I wouldn't want his job and lifestyle for all the money in the world.

Then there's Dr Morton at the local hospital. He saved my sister's life when she almost died in childbirth and he diagnosed the problem with our daughter - as far as we're concerned he saved her life too. He does his consultations in the morning, comes up to the hospital to see his patients there at lunchtime, does his day surgery, then back to the medical centre for more consultations, then up to the hospital again in the evening. When we're sitting down to eat dinner, he's still up there. When we were in the Children's Hospital, he rang every day to check on progress. I don't know what he gets paid but he's worth every cent of it if not more. I wouldn't want his job either.

[QUOTE=PhilMcCrackin]You can't be serious........ Before you start doctor bashing, Do you have any idea how much medical indemnity insurance costs? Do you have any idea how much time a doctor spends studying so he/she can provide you with the best possible care? Do you realise medical secretaries demand more money than a registered nurse is paid? Do you have any idea how much commercial rent costs for medical rooms? QUOTE]

I'm talking about casual medical officers working in the emergency department.

• As they are working in the E.D. the hospital is picking up the majority of any costs associated with insurance while they are here.
• Myself, and I'm sure many others, have worked very hard and spent a lot of time stydying to get the experience and qualifications that I have, but I still don't get paid $210.00 per hour
• While Doctors are working in the E.D. they dont need secretaries or nurses, the hospital provides them nor do they have to pay rent.
• For the purpose of this exercise I just did a walk through the doctors car park. Admittedly there were a couple of commodores and falcons. There was also 1 x peogot, 1 x Honda integra, 2 x BMW, 1 x Jaguar XJR, 2 x Mercedes, 1 x Lexus and 1 x Bentley.

Go and scratch the BMW, Jaguar, Mercedes and Lexus for me. :D

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Originally Posted by shrek

At the hospital I work at we will develop an approximate figure for what service you are being provided with and you need to pay this up front before we will look at you

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At the Eye and Ear, at the same time my wife was admitted for one of her operations, another woman, being a private patient, had to pay the $ 250 shortfall gap on the hospital room charge before being admitted. This was in addition for all the gap charges for the same operation.

Funny thing was she was lying next to my wife on the same 6 bed ward.


Peter.

So let me get this straight, if you pay for medicare, as we all do without choice, and you pay for private, you can't use the public system up to the same point as everybody else and then let the private cover kick in?

Jack

Jack,

If you go to a public hospital and mention that you have private health cover you are treated as a private patient. That means you pay the shortfall on rooms and the shortfall on your mediical care same as if you are in a private hospital.

However if you don't admit to having private cover you pay nothing for the same treatment.


Peter.

Sturdee has just pointed out one of the problems with the system we have. It stinks to my mind. Why should you penalised for contributing more to the system? That is you have your medicare levy and then pay more for private health you shouldn't be penalised for that.


One other great problem is bulk billing. If there is no charge to people using something you will inevitably get overuse. When there is no charge what you get is a queu. If you had to pay money there would be less in line but people would complain they have a right to everything the health system can offer.

Were there no bulk billing there would be much more value in private health insurance. Poor people without money for insurance can be provided for via the welfare system. It isn't working trying to provide for them via the health system.

Studley

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Originally Posted by Sturdee

However if you don't admit to having private cover you pay nothing for the same treatment.

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Right then, it looks like my private health care card is coming out of the wallet and staying at home until I need elective treatment.

For me it is a hell of a lot cheaper to pay for private insurance than to pay the extra levy's I would have to pay the tax man.

But be damned if I am not going to use the medicare system which I contribute quite a bit of money to.

Cheers, Jack

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Originally Posted by Jack E

But be damned if I am not going to use the medicare system which I contribute quite a bit of money to.

Cheers, Jack

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Jack,

Wait untill youve spent 12 months on a waiting list for elective surgery for a bad back.....then you'll wish you had kept your private cover.

Agreed the whole system is stuffed but at the end of the day I dont want to end up in a situation like the one Ive just described above and I'm willing to pay the loot so I can get any serious ailments fixed pronto....I just cant afford to be sitting around out of work for 12 months.

Your choice but like any form of insurance its all about beating the odds.

Cheers Martin

Health Insurance - you are betting them that you are going to get really sick, they're betting you that you won't ... and you are hoping THEY win :rolleyes:

Richard

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Originally Posted by ozwinner

As Pauleine says.
Please Explaine?

Al :confused:

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A couple of years ago our Esteemed Premier introduced a scheme to pay for the ailing ambulance system. Subscriptions weren't working so we now pay a little with our power bills. the bloody idiot keeps blaming lack of funds for poor hospitals and overworked paramedics. Wouldn't have anything to do with the 64 tier bureaucracy.
He now wants to means test public patients. How many extra bloody staff will you need to do that?

G'day Gingermick,

I remember that. Talk about double dipping. Those who have paid the ambulance membership are also forced to pay a second time with their power bills, also remember those who refuse to pay the tax component of their power bill.

Beatie like all other Labor premiers in QLd is an idiot.

(get the Sunday Mail each week to keep up to speed with the news from home)

You can't subscribe to the ambulance anymore, we all pay for it on our power bills. This, according to some, gives them the right to call for an ambulance to take them to hospital for a runny nose or sore arm or leg.

BTW I vote we abolish the states. get rid of the tripling of bureaucrats. Thats where all the money goes, not doctors or nurses. Goes to run gov departments.
While we're at it, let's get rid of the Fed gov as well and run the place ourselves.:D

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Originally Posted by Gingermick

BTW I vote we abolish the states. get rid of the tripling of bureaucrats. Thats where all the money goes, not doctors or nurses. Goes to run gov departments.
While we're at it, let's get rid of the Fed gov as well and run the place ourselves.:D

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Be careful, under Johnny's new anti terror laws, you could end up in jail for writing that.