quote:

Originally posted by Philby since my brain is not working right now i will sort of rephrase. if you say private health insurance is a joke, why? what makes it worse than public health insurance?

its to long to go into, im sure theres been a thread like this before
first reason- prime objective is to make money, so i bet you can only imagine the kind of things that go on to do so.
secondly- i dont believe you necessarily get the best of everything
thirdly- its a battle between the hospital and the health fund, to see who will pay the bills, health funds usually allow you a time frame for how long you will be in hospital, if you happen to stay 3 days instead of one, you will be out of pocket and generally have to pick up the remaining costs.... more money coming out of your own pocket

im getting to that stage where i am considering private health insurance too. Having sadi that due to work, i have access to Defence Health, which is insurance provided for our army, navy etc so its a pretty good deal.

I think its one of those things where you never quite know when soemthing could happen, and maybe its worth plannign for.

however considering i earn over that bracket which excludes you from the medicare levy, doesnt that mean i should just get Private Health insurance anyway??

advice/thoughts ppl

quote:

Originally posted by narcism Private health insurance is a joke

....lol i should of read the next page, phil asked the exact same question lol

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quote:

Originally posted by kittn And I see your point pkc but it's not the modern medicine which kept my grandmother alive until she went into the home at the age of 87, it was good genetics, a reasonable diet, and sheer bloody-mindedness. What's the alternative to nursing homes? Euthanasia?? You can't just knock people off once they need care.

But this is Australians we are talking about.....

something to ponder that ive experience in my time so far at work!!

nursing homes...
they cost a fucking fortune for starters and what sort of care do the users get?? well i was fortunate enough the other day to go to a nursing home where we had been called to a collapsed gentleman..

we arrived and he was clearly unconcious with no pulse etc... now think about this for a second! what sort of care would you expect to recieve in a 'nursing' home? the word nursing implies some sort or medical care does it not?? well apparently not! we arrived to find this gentleman pretty much dead, we were the first to commence resus attempts but later ceased as he had been down a little to long. and at the stage were reviving him may actually worsen his quality of life.. When we questioned staff as to why they had not commenced any resus efforts they said they were not trained!! not trained... these people are supposedly RN's with training and degrees... WTF?? certainly understand if they were carers or cleaning staff but RN's not trained in CPR i find quite absurd! now i think narcism is a nurse and im sure she would be feeling sick about this right about now.. if you as a family had been spending so much money for the supposedly the best care for your loved one what would you expect from it? This was indeed one of adelaides top 'private' nurising care facilities, not a public nursing home!

further investigation of the nursing home yielded some disturbing facts.. there was only one RN (registered nurse) on duty at this time, she was not familiar with current protocol on resus or what to do when someone went unconscious and this person was in charge of a 250 bed nursing care facility.. the people attending to the patients in this facility under this so called RN were just carers and shouldnt be held responsable for such incidents as there training doesnt cover it, this is the sort of care you would probably expect in a extended elderly care hostel but a nursing home of this size and supposed quality is well below par.. astonishingly the carers tryed to wake this gentleman before we had arrived, with no success, they didnt know how to find a pulse so just let him a be a while, thinking he was in a deep sleep, it was by chance we were called (btw im an ambo if no one had guessed) as the carer mentioned in the corridor to the RN that they couldnt wake mr X, but unfotunately about 5 - 8 mins passed between the carer and RN seeing the patient, and a further 15 minutes before we were called to the patient, add in 8 mins travelling time to get to the pt and about 40 mins would have passed before any definative intervention could have been started for this gentleman. which is A) disturbing and B) not good enough... how would you feel if this had been your grandparent??

i see many issues coming from this job alone...

for starters, what regulations govern nursing homes? what sort of training and qualifications are required by there staff? and what are you actually getting for your money! im sure the brochures dont speak of underqualified staff, to many beds for one person to over see etc...

not that the media mention it but this and incidents like whats in the media @ the moment are probably more common place than you think. im pretty sure based on my experience, these sorts of things are frequent, its how well they get covered up and reported as to what we actually know! the media probably cottoned on to these stories from disgruntled families or opposition political parties trying to use it as leverage! i dnt know or care the fact remains in my opinion its not good enough...

realistically this is probably only going to get alot worse. with the balloon in the population curve due to the baby boomer generation, a healthcare system already strecthed to its limits what solutions will be made. there are already staff shortages & not enough people wanting to work in the industry, not enough beds for patients and waiting lists are at all time highs, what will be done!

as for health insurance..

i recently brought some, more so for the tax benefits and medicare reduction. but in all honesty it is waste of time for the majority of the population, having said that it can be benficial for all at the same time!

for starters in an emergency at least your care is not going to be any different from that of anyone else, if you are ill you will be triaged appropriately and seen to the same as if you were not a private patient or at a private or public hospital. there is no difference there! and a little known fact private health insurance only kicks into gear once you are admitted to a ward! you are not privately covered until this point (in most states anyway) so if you do decide to go private in an emergency you can end up with a nasty bill from the hospital.. you will get the same care and rights as anyone else up until you are admitted to a specific ward in a hospital and taken on as an inpatient! so if your not at risk from medical conditions why would you bother??

you may decide to bother because you get choices... lots of them infact, choice of dr, surgeon, specialists, clinics, the list goes one! that is one benefit, but realistically the best people from my experience tend to work in the public system anyway!! lol bit ironic huh.. the other benefit i think lies in the extras you can package in, now this is why i need it! playing sport im probably at risk of getting hurt more than most, so having physio and dental and all those sorts of things will alleviate costs incurred to me so that is anoter reason why i got it. these alot more to it than just that but i cbf writing more at this point...

maybe continue later?

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its common fact that only one RN is on a shift at any one time,
also common fact in my hospital of 160 beds there is one RMO in the hospital at all times, who sits in ICU all day

private health insurance..... go out and get it

quote:

Originally posted by narcism its common fact that only one RN is on a shift at any one time, also common fact in my hospital of 160 beds there is one 1 RMO in the hospital at all times, who sits in ICU all day private health insurance..... go out and get it

only good for elective surgery imo! but which hospital you at??
maybe th eprivate system is different here in SA?

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quote:

Originally posted by aL_mAc only good for elective surgery imo! but which hospital you at?? maybe th eprivate system is different here in SA?

What people also need to know is
yes you can pick your surgeon ect. but hey you will get placed on a waiting list to see him.... our ortho surgeons have a 6 months waiting list, on the first appointment....

im at warringal private...
i do think its the same for most small private hospitals who dont have an ER....

as for the nursing home thing, i do believe everyone should be made NFR when entering

quote:

Originally posted by narcism as for the nursing home thing, i do believe everyone should be made NFR when entering

then id have nothing to do all day but sit and post on the internet!

i did my ankle in 2002, needed a complete restabilisation, saw surgeon 2 days after it happened, waited 2 weeks for swelling to go down was under knife and fixed within 3 weeks... had 12 weeks rehab and back and running after 15 weeks! cost to me was about $350 all up...

mind you was still under parents policy as i was a full time student!

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Last edited by aL_mAc on Apr-23-2007 at 06:56

quote:

Originally posted by aL_mAc then id have nothing to do all day but sit and post on the internet!

Not a bad thing