In a new environment, it is very important to understand the health care system in this country!
In Australia, if you need to be taken to a public hospital in an emergency, whether you have money or not, whether you are a tourist or a foreign student, you can be sent directly, the hospital will be treated immediately, and the patient will not be required to pay a deposit. Is it fair that the poor in Australia are ill and can eat and recuperate free of charge in public hospitals without paying a penny, while the rich in Australia have to pay private health insurance? Let`s talk about relationship in Australian public hospitals and private health insurance.
Talk about family doctors in Australia
In China, if you are ill all your life, you go to the hospital; go to this house today and that one tomorrow. In Australia, unless you are in an emergency, you will not go to the hospital, or if you go to the hospital, you will be thrown away. What you need is a regular family doctor, (General Practitioner, GP). He will help you see a minor illness; if he thinks your symptoms need to be examined further, he will transfer you to the specialist clinic (Specialist). All the results are given to the family doctor first, and then he will inform you; your family doctor will have all your medical history.
In Australia, it is important to find a fixed and good family doctor. No matter how good your English is, life-related matters or communication in Chinese is more convenient; so for Chinese living in Australia, it is recommended to find a Chinese-speaking family doctor.
If there`s no fixed family doctor, okay? no way! To give you a real example, a friend bought private health insurance and suddenly developed acute pancreatitis in the 11th month. I went to the public hospital first, dissatisfied with the service there; because of the private health insurance, I was transferred to the private hospital for 10 days. The service is good, but the insurance company quit. Private health insurance usually has 12 months of symptomatic waiting period (waiting period), to prevent those who know they are sick and buy insurance. The insurance company asked the friend to ask his family doctor to prove that he had not had the disease before. The friend was stupid because he never had a regular family doctor, so no doctor could give him this proof. This example tells us that it is very useful to find a good family doctor, often to check with him, and to have a medical record.
I`ll give you another real example. A friend was found to have too much sugar in his urine after an immigration checkup. The doctor asked him to go to a family doctor to prove that he had no diabetes. The family doctor asked him to do a blood sugar test without saying a word, and the results were normal, and the expenses spent during this period were "reimbursed" by the insurance company. In a reply, the insurance company still asked the family doctor to prove that the friend had no diabetes. The friend asked the insurance company: the test results are normal. Do you still need to prove it? Answer: yes! Finally, the friend went to see the family doctor again, and the insurance company gave the money. Therefore, the proof of the family doctor is very important.
A family doctor may not treat difficult and complicated diseases, but he knows who to recommend you for treatment. Again, family doctors are important in the Australian health care system. The weight of the letter of recommendation he gives you determines your priority in public hospitals; if he says the patient is estimated to be terminal (but you are early), the public hospital will treat you right away.
On Medical charges in Australia
A family doctor can charge as much as he wants. For the rich, they are willing to spend more money and buy a good service, so they don`t think it`s expensive to see a family doctor every time they see a family doctor, but it`s different for ordinary people.
What is Bulk Billing?
Australians have used (Medicare), the universal health care system, for decades to set a reference for family doctor fees, about $37 a time; this $37 is what government is willing to pay for every time you see a family doctor. If your family doctor charges you $50, you have to pay $13. Government comes up with something called "Bulk Billing" in order to keep people from paying for it. Basically, if a family doctor agrees to use "Bulk Billing," the doctor gives the doctor a little more money for every time they see a patient, so that every time people swipe their Bulk Billing card, they don`t have to pay a penny. So, if you`re looking for a family doctor who doesn`t spend money, just ask him if he`s Bulk Billing.
If your illness requires a minor operation, as long as the family doctor can do it, it is included in his charge; if you need a blood test and some pathological examination, the family doctor will transfer you to a special pathology laboratory, such as Healthscope. You can usually check it right away, but the results are sent directly to your family doctor. If you have a problem, the family doctor will call you right away; if you don`t have a phone call or letter, there`s usually no big problem; if you don`t rest assured, you can call the family doctor for the results in a day or two. Usually these tests are free; if you are not sure, ask the family doctor.
Medicine fee (medicine prescribed by the family doctor for you)
Unfortunately, the medical bills issued by the family doctor were paid for ourselves;In one case, you have a low income card. If you have low income or no work, you can apply for a low-income card. With a low-income card, no matter how expensive the medicine costs, you can get all the medicine by spending$5;Also, if you charge more than$1,000 a year, the excess is paid for by government. That is, if you buy$5 once and you spend$5000 a year, you just need to pay$1,000.
Surgery and treatment
When it comes to the charge of operation, the first thing to be clear is the difference between emergency operation (Surgry) and treatment of (Treatment). Surgery is to pull you into the o. R. for a few knives. The operation is divided into emergency surgery and non-emergency surgery:
emergency operation
Emergency surgery refers to an operation that will be performed on you immediately after you are taken to the hospital because your life is in danger, so you don`t have to wait. If you are sent to a public hospital, it is free; private hospitals will save you first and then ask you for money.
Non-emergency operation
A non-emergency procedure is a procedure that can be towed without an emergency, usually defined by the doctor that your symptoms can be maintained for at least 24 hours without danger. This type of surgery can be done by a family doctor or at a hospital, depending on the situation.
treat
Treatment is when you come to the operating room after a few knives or you don`t need an operation or you can`t do it, but you have to cure your illness by medical means (for example, tumors are opened first and then chemo). If you have mental problems, what you need is not surgery, but treatment.
ambulance
If you have a poor person`s card, then ambulance is free; if not, it is very unfortunate. In Australia (except Queensland and Tasmania), if you want to use an ambulance or ambulance plane, you have to pay for it yourself, ranging from $500 to $600 at a time; if you have insurance, the insurance company will usually pay for you, but not unlimited, usually once or twice a year. To make matters worse, you can call an ambulance or ambulance home if you think you`re dying. Usually, when you call 000, you are asked some questions; if your answer makes them think you won`t have a life problem right away, they will advise you to take a taxi to the hospital yourself. There is no way, they have a set of processes, can only follow the process.
Emergency patients, hospital patients (In-hospital Patient) and non-inpatients (Out-of-hospital)
If you go to a public hospital because of an emergency, then all the fees are free, including your medication during hospitalization; more importantly, as long as you are a permanent resident of Australia or citizen, you have the right to free access to public hospital treatment. Of course, for non-emergency surgery, you usually have to wait a long time. For example, you are found to have a tumor that does not endanger your life. This is not an emergency operation in Australia. It usually depends on the size and severity of your tumor to determine whether you do the surgery first or let the person in front of you do it first. For Chinese, queuing is more difficult to accept. It is best to have a problem now and operate now; but I am sorry, Australian public hospitals have to wait in line. Of course, you can spend your own money to go to a private hospital for surgery. This is the quickest solution. You can usually finish it in a few days, but spending tens of thousands of dollars is normal, so you need to buy private health insurance.
I have an emergency in Australia. In addition to going directly to the hospital, it is recommended by a family doctor. The family doctor will write to the hospital to tell the hospital the treatment you need, the hospital will make the corresponding arrangements when notified, and then inform you to go to the treatment. Usually, if you are accepted by a public hospital and want to stay in a hospital for a few days, then you are a "hospital patient", and the cost is completely free; sometimes, you just have to go to the hospital for a minor operation or special examination that you can perform in a day, and you don`t need to be hospitalized at all, and you are also a "hospital patient." As long as it`s a "hospital patient," you always have to wait in line to enjoy a free public hospital, so patients sometimes have to go to a private hospital or a private expert clinic.
If you go to a private hospital, there are two expenses involved, one is that the cost of private hospital (Hospital Expense), includes hospitalization fee, operating room fee, all drugs used in hospital, and the cost of ITC (Intensive Care), etc. The other is that the cost of treatment (Medical Expense), is usually the cost of expert doctor, surgeon, anesthesiologist and so on. Usually, government (Medicare) will not help you pay for going to a private hospital, but it will help you pay 75 per cent of the treatment and the remaining 25 per cent will have to be paid for yourself. The fee here refers to the government reference price for the treatment of the disease in a hospital. Usually, the cost of a private doctor far exceeds this price. For example, the price of making gastroscope is $2000, and the reference price of government may be only $1000. Then government will pay you $750 and you have to pay $1250 instead of 25%. If there is private insurance, it will be better, at least the remaining 25% will be paid for by the insurance company.
You might think you have to pay $1000? What`s the use of this private insurance? The key is to see what kind of insurance you buy. There are many kinds of private insurance, and the expensive one usually pays for all the expenses. If you have private health insurance, you don`t have to go to any private hospital, but expensive insurance will give you more choices, cheaper insurance will allow you to go to the private hospital signed up with the insurance company; if you go to the hospital designated by the insurance company, you don`t have to pay for it, so it`s hard to say what else you want to go to.
Sometimes, your treatment doesn`t need to go to the hospital, and the family doctor will send you a letter asking you to go to the private expert clinic; if so, you`re not in the hospital. For "unhospitalized patients", government will pay you 85 per cent of the specialist clinic fee, and you will pay 15 per cent for your own clinic; it should also be stated here that the fee here refers to the government fee reference price (Medicare Benefit Schedule Fee), your expert doctor usually charges more than that, so the amount of money you have to pay is likely to exceed 15 per cent; In addition, government also stipulates that private insurance can not help you pay for the 15%, so as long as you are "non-inpatient", you will certainly spend some money yourself.
However, government has Medicare Safety Net and Extended Medicare Safety Net, the former means that if you spend more than $388.80 on seeing a doctor as an "non-inpatient" in the year, then if you go to see a doctor again, government will pay 100 per cent for you; Remember, the specialist clinic may charge you $200, but the government fee reference price is only $100, so you have to pay $100.Extended Medicare Safety Net yourself, which means that you spent more than $1126 or $562.90 (if you`re poor) this year as an "non-inpatient", then government will help you pay 80% of what you have to pay, so if you reach the level of Extended Medicare Safety Net, When your specialist clinic charges you $200 but the government fee reference price is only $100, you can pay $20 yourself and the other $80 will be paid by government.
Talking about Australian Medical Insurance
In order to see a doctor without waiting in line, in order to be able to go to a private hospital to enjoy a better service, it is necessary to buy Australian private health insurance.
In fact, public medical services are also a kind of insurance, premiums are deducted from our income. When you file a tax return every year, you will see something called Medicare Levy, which is 1.5% of your income. As long as you have an income, you have to pay 1.5% tax to buy this Medicare Levy insurance; if your income is very low, you don`t even have to pay this tax, but you can also enjoy Medicare; if your income exceeds $77000, or if you and your spouse earn more than $154000, you have to pay an extra 1% Medicare Levy Subcharge. on top of the 1.5% tax. How can we not pay this 1% tax? Then you have to buy a private health insurance. Note that the income mentioned here refers to annual income.
The fact is that government encourages people to take advantage of their youth to buy private health insurance early. There are rules that if you buy private health insurance from the age of 31, government will pay you 30% a year; by 65, you`ll get a 35% discount; by 70, you`ll get a 40% discount.
If you are not an Australian permanent resident, can you take out health insurance? Yes! Many insurance companies offer private health insurance for people who come to Australia to work or travel; if you have accompanying families, they can also buy private health insurance, which costs about 30 per cent more than Australian permanent residents or citizen. Stress that if you are on a work visa because you are not an Australian permanent resident or citizen, you do not have to pay 1.5 per cent of the Medicare Levy tax because you cannot enjoy the treatment of Medicare; that is to say, you can get the 1.5 per cent tax back from government when you refund the tax, so that you may pay less than Australian permanent resident or citizen. I would like to suggest several insurance companies for you here:
Medibank,: www.medibank.com.au
Bupa,: www.hba.com.au
Nib,: www.nib.com.au
ISelect,: www.iselect.com.au
Talk about how to better protect yourself and your family in Australia
Health insurance just protects you from paying too much for treatment in a private hospital when you are ill. But once you are seriously ill and unable to work, your income insurance (Income Protection Insurance) is particularly important. But if you pay for this kind of insurance, it`s obviously not as useful as health insurance, so you can use the money in your pension (Super) to buy income insurance, with two advantages:
- The money in Super is not available when you retire (except in special cases); if retirement is still far from you, it is better to spend it in a place that is good for the present.
- Super and insurance companies usually sign up, and buying income insurance through Super is cheaper than buying it directly with an insurance company.
So if you can`t work, how much and how long can you pay for income insurance? Usually up to 80% of your income, depending on the type of insurance you buy, depending on the type of insurance you pay for 2 to 5 years. In other words, if your annual income is $1000, then you can buy 80000 of the income insurance, the premium may be $5 a week; if you want to pay less premium, you can buy 60000 income insurance, the premium may be $4 a week. Remember, you can buy less, but not more; if your income is only $60000, you can buy up to 48000 of the income insurance. Also, you have to pay income tax for the money you take from the insurance company.
The premium is also related to your career. If you are a construction worker, you must be more likely to get hurt at work than in the office, so your premium will be more expensive; usually, professional premiums are the cheapest. In addition, if you are ill and unable to work, there will be a waiting period, usually one month or three months; if you choose three months, the premium will be cheaper, but you may miss the period when the premium works.
