Healthcare

Let us discuss healthcare. I know very little about the situation in the States so I am hoping that some US citizens will enlighten me on the basics.

All I do know is that Australian citizens have a choice between public healthcare (which the most part is very adequate) and private healthcare (generally covered by private health insurance).

Some public healthcare services are free to all Australians. All other services are free for the unemployed, the disabled and independent students etc. and anybody earning a reasonable income must pay a certain amount towards their medical care, although it is still partially subsidized by the government.

People earning a reasonable income have the option of buying private health insurance. People who buy private health insurance get a small tax discount (largely due to the fact that they are using less public health services).

Essentially, all Australians have access to an adequate free or partially subsidised medical system, regardless of income, but they have the option of buying private health insurance and/or paying for higher quality private medical services.

Does this sound like a good system to you? Capitalism with a safety net?

 

Yes, that does sound like a good system.

Do people pay a certain percentage of their salary towards medical care or a set amount? (I would guess percentage)

 

seems extremely reasonable. in other words, that will never happen here.

 

I don't think anyone should be denied treatment because they cannot afford it.

However, I think a single-payer system that forces everyone to accept government healthcare is a very BAD idea. Unless one is living in a fascist dictatorship (which the US is fast becoming), people should be given a choice. However, it doesn't matter what the public thinks because they go through with it anyway. So once they mandate government health care, the state can determine who gets treatment and what kind of treatment they can and can't receive. Nice, huh?

 

Every income earner (over a certain amount) has to pay a "medicare levy". I'm not sure if it is percentage based or a set amount, but there are a wide variety of discounts you can get for being a single parent or having private health insurance etc.

Yes, that is what they have in the United Kingdom.

I would actually go as far to say that the system isn't terribly bad. All prescription medication costs the same tiny fee (which means for example, that an epileptic person isn't out of pocket for having to need expensive meds). Everything else is absolutely free.

Depending on what part of the country you come from the standard of care is quite good. I had to get a nose operation in Durham, I was ensured a place very quickly and once I was in the hospital didn't want to leave because I felt like I was staying in a hotel for free.

On the other hand, the system is very inflexible. You're bound to the same doctor all the time, which makes moving around difficult. You're also bound to the facilities in your area. If the standard of care sucks and the queues are epic where you live, there is little you can do about it. Those are the few qualms I had while I was there. Certainly nothing to be frightened about, although I much prefer Australia's system.

 

Well, nothing is "free." These countries pay huge amounts of money in taxes to fund this system.

 

I didn't know that, thanks.

 

lulz.

Anyway, I think your healthcare system sounds really reasonable. Best of socialism and capitalism.

 

How much does the average person spend on healthcare in the US?
I have a feeling our taxes might be slightly higher than yours but we still don't ultimately pay as much for our healthcare as you guys do.

A "post-code" lottery? That was once the case. When where you here?
It isn't quite like that anymore...I don't think.
You can pick your own doctor and you can pick where you recieve your care. The Qs would be long rather than epic, too.


There would be a new NHS constitution, which will guarantee everyone access to drugs and treatments approved by Nice - the National Institute for Clinical Excellence - within a maximum of six months, with most available in three months.
The move is a response to complaints by patients that a "postcode lottery" has grown up in the NHS, with some health authorities refusing to pay for drugs and treatments even after their approval by Nice.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/2221605/Alan-Johnson-vows-to-end-NHS-postcode-lottery.html

http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Healthcare/NHSConstitution/DH_093184

 

Yes, and also people here are not denied treatment due to rationing.

Not saying the US health care system is great, or even good, because it's not. It's better than the UK's and Canada's, though.

 

What do you mean "rationing"?

Did you read the response below yours?

 

I was there in 2006/2007. I can remember only being able to choose a doctor close to my own postcode and only if they were accepting new patients. It was tough shit if I wanted to go to the surgery near my house if they were full, instead I had to pay for a bus across the other side of town. Once I was 'locked in' to a clinic, I was only allowed medical treatment from hospitals within the region of that clinic. Luckily I was in the North East where the hospitals are very good.

In Australia you can go to any clinic, in any state, as long as they have a free appointment, no matter where you live. If I desperately need to see a doctor and the nearby clinic is full for a few days, I can always make my way to another in the area.

I read it and couldn't understand what they were talking about. What is this postcode lottery bollocks?

Oh yes, I do remember struggling to get the prescription that I was told I absolutely needed because it was too expensive, and then having the doctor punish me by making me visit him weekly to renew it.

 

The Dental situation in Australia is fucked.

The biggest benefit of a Universal healthcare system is catching stuff proactively before it gets worse, even though a Universal system might be more inefficient.

Dental work is probably the most important part of the body when it comes to catching problems proactively, with the exception of maybe cardio or breast/prostate cancer.

Which makes the dental situation here extra dumb, and we might want to avoid starting to look like the Brits

 

The education system is better here as well, much cheaper, and every citizen can go to university provided they have the scores, the state will pay for you. In american movies I always hear the parents referring to a 'college fund', they're literally saving up for it from the moment they have kids? And students coming out with $50,000 + in debt? That's not right.

And another term I hear "job with benefits', stuff like dental is so expensive they have to find a job that will cover it for them, you guys need a bit of 'socialism'.

 

OK, with all the talk about health care, I would like to say that health care today is about making money keeping people sick, regardless if it's state health care or private HMO. The pharamceutical companies still are making huge amounts of money, and they're also at the forefront of this push for socialized medicine.

I would hope this is common knowledge to most people, but maybe it's not.

Sure accidents happen. People get into car accidents, fall of ladders, break bones, etc. However, when it comes to health you hear very little about prevention and personal responsibility, if at all.

Frankly, with the direction health care is going, I plan on losing as much weight as I can and becoming healthy so I don't have to even worry about becoming a ward of the system and being subjected to the toxic waste they call pharmaceuticals.

 

No thanks. We already have enough government control over people. We don't need more.

 

Having friends in both the UK & Canada, I'd have to say that the US system is better. I recently dealt a mountain of medical bills and have more on the horizon & I have learned that there are several small safety nets available for low income folks but you have to ask about them. Some of my hospital bills were paid by the hospital's charity program, others were paid for by a county program. The county is still paying for my care but if I wind up using up the funds allotted to me, I will have to apply for an emergency medicaid program.

 

Private Health Insurance. Go to a decent dentist, problem solved.

Having said that, I did public dentist as well in my student days and it was fine. I've never seen any evidence to suggest we have a bad dental system. In fact, there are medicare dentists in the UK for Aussie Expats because the UK dental system is so horribly inadequate.

 

The government cannot even manage a fucking "Car for Clunkers" program, yet they trust the government to manage their health care. Amazing!

 

Here here!, I react in horror at some of the debts they get into over there.

For me Uni was a joke, a failry useless experience, a whole lot of essays about shit that I havent thought about since. Got me a certain kind of job once I graduated, but did fuck all in regards to my advancment once employed, so thank God it didnt cost me that much