Posts Tagged ‘Medicare’

There is a lot of talk in the states about health care reform. The President campaigned on it, and now actually wants to do something about his campaign promises. How about that. I guess in Australia that would make it a “core” promise.

I had hope that with the economy in the toilet and people paying stupid amounts for basic health care that both sides of the government might actually pull together as they did behind Roosevelt in the Great Depression.

I guess there isn’t a Napoleon Hill to pull things together this time around.

Australia has a hybrid system and although no where near perfect, it works reasonably well. There are horror stories as with all nationalized health care systems, but no more that I’ve heard in the states. I’ve been out of the country since end of 06 so some aussies may chime in with more up to date details.

The medicare system works quite well and will cover you for everything. There are wait times for what are termed elective surgeries and they can get long. It could be that things work a little smoother due to the lower population of Australia.

You also have the option of getting private health insurance. Which allows you faster access to specialists, choice of doctors and the like.

The private health insurance is strongly encouraged by the gov and they levy additional taxes on you if you don’t take it out past the age of 32.

The cost of this health insurance is significantly less than the US system.

To be frank the health care system in this country is a joke. When hospitals charge exorbitant fees because the insurance companies are paying and will discount 80% if you have no health insurance, it’s a joke.

If the costs were more reasonable, then the insurance would be more reasonable and a self employed person like me wouldn’t be looking at over 2,000 a month for proper coverage for my family of 4.

It’s actually more cost effective to pay your own way and take out some sort of hosptial coverage in case of accidents and emergency.

As to whether I think health care should be nationalized in the states? I currently think that the government is incapable of making good decisions due to the special interest groups and lobbyists.

So even if they did push it through it would be more expensive than it needs to be due to having to make enough people happy enough to vote.