rob_gould said:This thread is fascinating as a non- American.
Don't have anything else to say as it might be inflammatory to what is clearly a sore point
Gold said:I have health insurance through Freelancers Union in New York State. I haven't gotten any notices about rate increases.
pucho812 said:Gold said:I have health insurance through Freelancers Union in New York State. I haven't gotten any notices about rate increases.
wasn't that due to the fact it was delayed for unions for a year?
Spiritworks said:I'm told I can deposit up to $3500.00 per annum as a tax-deferred portion of my income. Not sure what happens to it if I don't spend it.
I have a friend from Oz who was over here working as a consultant when his wife was diagnosed with cancer. He returned home so she could be treated there. She is still alive AFAIK so the treatment was adequate.Sammas said:rob_gould said:This thread is fascinating as a non- American.
Don't have anything else to say as it might be inflammatory to what is clearly a sore point
Likewise here. I have no idea how exactly the health system works in the USA.
If its not too much to explain, would anyone care to try?
This thread makes me take back all the bad things I have said about Australia's health system.
JohnRoberts said:I have a friend from Oz who was over here working as a consultant when his wife was diagnosed with cancer. He returned home so she could be treated there. She is still alive AFAIK so the treatment was adequate.Sammas said:rob_gould said:This thread is fascinating as a non- American.
Don't have anything else to say as it might be inflammatory to what is clearly a sore point
Likewise here. I have no idea how exactly the health system works in the USA.
If its not too much to explain, would anyone care to try?
This thread makes me take back all the bad things I have said about Australia's health system.
I am afraid a short explanation would not do this justice, and a long answer from me would include my bias, but I'll try to go short.
Explaining what US healthcare is or was is academic since we are in the middle of changing over to the ACA (affordable care act).
The poorly executed web site is getting a lot of attention but IMO that is just a symptom of government mismanagement and relatively easy to fix. It's a website not brain surgery. An amusing tidbit the consultant they just hired to fix the web problem worked for Bain in the past, the same company Romney worked for that was painted as evil capitalists.
On paper we are moving to a hybrid public/private system where the government is heavily regulating how the private insurance companies behave. with penalty fines for individuals or companies who do not participate. As with any undertaking this large (17% of our GDP) the devil is in the details. and I have been complaining about those details for the last few years. Now I am willing to wait and see how this plays out. I didn't expect the website to be a problem, I expect the next year or two to be very interesting when the reality of this is felt more strongly. We have seen changes in business and insurance company behavior in anticipation of this. Now we will feel the full effect.
I would truly love to be wrong in my judgement about this. I need to stop whining for now. It is not productive.
JR
That would be nice...Sammas said:Thanks for the explanation. Is there any chance these are just teething problems?
One issue many western nations are struggling with is end of life care. We can spend remarkable amounts of money buying extra months of life. A rather tough decision to have made for us by others.Our public health system here in Australia is actually pretty damn good. Only some very specific treatments aren't covered. Dental is one of them... along with other more esoteric forms of cancer treatment, anything classed as "optional", etc.
Um, That is good and bad. Good because people should not postpone needed healthcare that they really need, but bad because it doesn't make us very thrifty about consuming healthcare. We do actually pay for this and that is why newer experimental cancer treatments are considered optional. Cancer is worthy of a whole topic by itself. We spend incredible amounts of money developing new cancer treatments that just postpone the inevitable for many (like two of my siblings no longer among us). While some actual cures come from throwing all this money against the wall, and these once proved get shared elsewhere.I spent 5 days in hospital a few years back - my own room, MRI's, regular blood tests, skin biopsies, ultrasounds. It didn't cost me a cent directly.
1.5% seems modest. but, add another 1% tax on the wealthy, and according to wiki "but mostly out of general revenue" so you are paying more than 1.5% of your income for it whether you realize or not.Indirectly though, every tax paying Australian who earns beyond a "low income wage" either pays 1.5% of their annual earnings in tax towards public health... or you can spend the money on private health insurance and be exempt from the tax. That is literally where the line is drawn. It doesn't matter if you pay for private health insurance... you can still use the government health system, government hospitals and not actually ever claim anything through your private insurer at all.
I have written a great deal about this over recent years and I can't repeat everything. Short version is I agree the healthcare system is broken, but I don't believe they have fixed it with ACA. And I certainly don't agree with Pres Obama's characterization that this is a "good deal". Good deal for somebody, just not most of the public. The public will figure that out eventually.From my stint in the UK, its quite similar. Each paycheck had an additional "national insurance" tax on it in exchange for public health and dental.
That is largely the reason I chimed into this thread. I am not a vocal person when it comes to politics, but our health care system is one thing that would take me to the streets in protest if anyone ever tried to remove it. While the government shut down and the reasoning behind it were reported regularly here in Australia, nothing much was mentioned about what ObamaCare actually is.
There must be so many people stuck in jobs they hate because they dare not lose their company's health plan.
DaveP said:I think my state may have refused it, to be honest I haven't been playing close attention.
JR
You are joking?
Since when did you not place close attention? ;D
best
DaveP
JohnRoberts said:That would be nice...Sammas said:Thanks for the explanation. Is there any chance these are just teething problems?
For the record I am not complaining about the website... that is readily fixable.
One issue many western nations are struggling with is end of life care. We can spend remarkable amounts of money buying extra months of life. A rather tough decision to have made for us by others.Our public health system here in Australia is actually pretty damn good. Only some very specific treatments aren't covered. Dental is one of them... along with other more esoteric forms of cancer treatment, anything classed as "optional", etc.
Um, That is good and bad. Good because people should not postpone needed healthcare that they really need, but bad because it doesn't make us very thrifty about consuming healthcare. We do actually pay for this and that is why newer experimental cancer treatments are considered optional. Cancer is worthy of a whole topic by itself. We spend incredible amounts of money developing new cancer treatments that just postpone the inevitable for many (like two of my siblings no longer among us). While some actual cures come from throwing all this money against the wall, and these once proved get shared elsewhere.I spent 5 days in hospital a few years back - my own room, MRI's, regular blood tests, skin biopsies, ultrasounds. It didn't cost me a cent directly.
1.5% seems modest. but, add another 1% tax on the wealthy, and according to wiki "but mostly out of general revenue" so you are paying more than 1.5% of your income for it whether you realize or not.Indirectly though, every tax paying Australian who earns beyond a "low income wage" either pays 1.5% of their annual earnings in tax towards public health... or you can spend the money on private health insurance and be exempt from the tax. That is literally where the line is drawn. It doesn't matter if you pay for private health insurance... you can still use the government health system, government hospitals and not actually ever claim anything through your private insurer at all.
I have written a great deal about this over recent years and I can't repeat everything. Short version is I agree the healthcare system is broken, but I don't believe they have fixed it with ACA. And I certainly don't agree with Pres Obama's characterization that this is a "good deal". Good deal for somebody, just not most of the public. The public will figure that out eventually.From my stint in the UK, its quite similar. Each paycheck had an additional "national insurance" tax on it in exchange for public health and dental.
That is largely the reason I chimed into this thread. I am not a vocal person when it comes to politics, but our health care system is one thing that would take me to the streets in protest if anyone ever tried to remove it. While the government shut down and the reasoning behind it were reported regularly here in Australia, nothing much was mentioned about what ObamaCare actually is.
I expect reform from here to be even harder, trying to put flesh on the skeleton of ACA , but I am getting ahead of myself. For now I need to just let this play out.
JR
I have to pay for my gym membership out of pocket, but I pay for everything out of my pocket.Sammas said:I pay about 3 point something percent for private health insurance, as I get optional extras like optical, dental & gym membership coverage.
ding ding ding... Yes we have an unholy alliance between hospitals and insurance companies that perpetuate bad management and poor allocation of resources (concealing/distorting price discovery from consumer decision making). That said adding government to the mix, without fixing the underlying problems just makes it all bigger (more expensive), not better.1.5%... 4%... either way, I see the real advantage of the system being the declaration of "low income earner". Students studying at university, people who physically are unable to work, single mothers with dependent children, etc still get the same access to health care.
The problem I see with the USA's hospital system is not health insurance, but rather the financial administration.
Health costs in Australia are lower, and health care is cheaper simply because the vast majority of hospitals are publicly owned and operated.
That would seem logical if the cost of the syringes was the only issue, and the government was the single prime contractor, but that is not what we have.When that is the case, tendering to the private sector for maintenance, supplies, cleaning, etc on a state and national level results in much better prices.
Its cheaper per unit to buy wima caps when you get 100 rather than 10. When you start tendering the private sector for the purchase of 5 million syringes rather than 50000, it gets a whole lot cheaper too.
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