Private Health Insurance

Our son Martin starts work this morning in his new job.  He has me, and a friend who is in the house restoration business, to call on if he gets into a sticky situation with  a maintenance job outside his experience.  He starts at 7am and finishes around 3 - 3.30pm.  Being ‘on salary’  means he can be required to work outside normal hours without overtime payment.  Hope it all goes well today. 

Scrubs up pretty well hugh?

The state elections are running down to voting day next weekend.  In all the spin from both sides I have the most concern for the incumbent government’s plan to privatise some public hospital services such as dietician, physio, counselling etc.  During my wife’s specialised treatment for cancer at a large private hospital we experienced the drop-by visit by a dietician who had a short chat and later we received a largish bill.  ‘Not used to that and I would not like to see it happen in public hospitals such as the Fiona Stanley hospital which is to open its doors next year.  

In Australia, treatment at a public hospital is free.  The patient is asked if he/she has private health insurance, but there is no legal requirement to disclose membership of a fund.  Sadly, those who do admit to being in a private health fund will have to pay a gap fee on services provided.  People who do not have health insurance have no gap to pay.       We had and I now have, private insurance and in the end it paid off.  Immediate treatment and most services covered...one for $16,000 for a day surgery for SIRT treatment for Joan's liver cancer.

Private patients can get non-urgent major surgery such as hip replacement with a short wait for a hospital bed, but public patients join a waiting list and may be waiting for up to 18 months.