Since the advent of the safety net, fees have leapt by 290% for IVF and 40% for obstetrics – giving rise to claims that the system is being rorted.

.. the crackdown ….. – is expected to save $437 million over four years.

Areas targeted for cuts include artificial reproductive technology (IVF), obstetrics and varicose vein treatment, identified in a report into the scheme.

http://www.theage.com.au/national/crackdown-on-doctor-rorts-20090506-avc2.html

We just paid a lot of money for a procedure that didn’t work. That’s life. But what floors me is that, our “insurance” covered less of the surgeon’s fees than did the Medicare payment for the same procedure! And it “paid” for a hospital bed my relative had been in the previous month as a public patient anyway…

Would it just have been a case of “bad luck, elective surgery, suffer” or would he/she had it but with a different surgeon?

My H has taken out private insurane specifically to have a hip replacement, so I’m interested in this scenario.

At Prince of Wales Randwick, had a family member publicly admitted for emergency diagnostics after a health scare. Discharged 4 days later after checks came back OK. The diagnostician happened to be the *same doctor* we’d been seeing as private patients, but cost us nothing to see him in the public hospital! At any rate, we booked a private “elective” (“elective” in the sense that you can elect to have the operation, or elect to be in crippling pain for the rest of your life) procedure with him a month later, since it was the only way to get him as the surgeon. Not a cent paid for the public admission.

4 weeks later, go back this time for the private admission. Our insurance “paid” for the hospital bed (in the same ward as we’d been in the public admission 4 weeks earlier!) and about 20% of the surgeon’s fees. Medicare paid 30% of the surgeon’s fees. We were then out of pocket nearly $2000 after paying thousands of dollars of “insurance” premiums for years beforehand.

Canceled private insurance the following week. I wish there were a hell they could all burn in.

Although would be happy to never again smell a hospital cafeteria!

I too have had only good experiences in the public system, but I was treated very snootily in the private system once because I was paying out of my own dough and had no insurance. I verily glowered at the insensitivity of the anaesthetist whose only concern pre-op was how exactly was I going to pay? Once he had me on the wheelie tray, semi-conscious, completely at his mercy and very vulnerable, my angelic host must have socked it to his conscience and he came over all sweet and hand-holding–his kindness made me weep and then I was gone.

I’d go the public everytime but of course it depends on which one.

I hope you’re well on the way to full recovery suz, and Josh @39 I hope the little tacker is doing ok. That’s a tough ‘welcome to the world’– such as it is.

Yet just yesterday I read an analysis of number of births per Sydney suburb which showed that the richer suburbs are producing lower numbers of babies!

If they didn’t do any other adjustments that would not be surprising at all as the richer suburbs are going to have a higher percentage over older people and a lower percentage of people trying to having children. Though maybe a higher percentage of people trying IVF which would push the safety net stats up even further given how expensive it is.

LeftyE -I’m not sure but I suspect a great deal of the rich suburbs getting the threshold on MBS is due to private births/obs/gyny now charging the fullfee as an upfront consult, subsequently covering all in hospital and post inpatient treatment, thus triggering the threshold on first consult, so patients have no other out of pockets other than that first $800. Motherhood – we are all for it.

Actually I believe the threshold is about $1100 for families and you still have out of pocket expenses. After the safety net threshold you still pay 20% of the out of pocket expenses. Still can add up to quite considerable savings though. It probably acts as a sort of private insurance subsidy as instead of the health funds having to cover obs fees the government covers part of it.

I spent four days in a public hospital last year. Like you, I was admitted extremely quickly after my intitial consultation with my GP – ten days, including seeing a specialist. I did not pay one cent, except unlike you I balked a bit at the food. It was perfectly reasonable, but when the doctor says it’s OK for your friends and family to bring reserves from outside, who could say “no”? During that four days, for two of them I shared with one other person, and for the other two with two other people.

I cannot see what all the fuss is about. Our (NSW anyway) public health system is senstational