To a new environment, it is very important to understand the health care system in this country!
In Australia, if you have an emergency and need to be taken to a public hospital, whether you are rich or not, whether you are a tourist or a foreign student, you can be taken directly into the hospital, where immediate treatment is performed and no deposit is required. Is it fair that poor Australians get sick without paying a dime to eat and stay in public hospitals free of charge, while rich Australians are forced to pay private health insurance? Let's talk about the relationship between Australian public hospitals and private health insurance. About family doctors in Australia
In China, a lifetime of illness runs to the hospital; go to this house today and to that one tomorrow. In Australia, you don't go to a hospital unless you're in an emergency, or you're left behind when you go to a hospital. What you need is a fixed family doctor (General Practitioner- > GP). He will help you with your illness; if you feel your symptoms need further examination, he will refer you to the specialist clinic (Specialist). All the results are given to the family doctor, who will inform you; your family doctor will have all your medical history.
In Australia, it is important to find a well-established family doctor. No matter how good your English is, life-related matters are more convenient to communicate in Chinese; therefore, for Chinese living in Australia, it is recommended to find a family doctor who can speak Chinese.
If there's no fixed family doctor, okay? no way! To give you a real example, a friend who bought private health insurance suddenly developed acute pancreatitis in the 11th month. First go to public hospitals, dissatisfied with the services there; because of private health insurance, transferred to private hospitals for 10 days. The service was good, but the insurance company quit. Private health insurance usually has a 12-month symptomatic waiting period (waiting period), to prevent people who know they are sick and then 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 about it, because he never had a fixed family doctor, so no doctor could prove it to him. This example tells us that it is very useful to find a good family doctor, check him often, and have a medical record.
Give you another real example. A friend who performed an immigration check-up was found to have too much sugar in his urine and the doctor asked him to go to his family doctor for proof that he had no diabetes. The family doctor asked him to do a blood sugar test without saying anything, and the results were normal, and the expenses spent during the period were "reimbursed" by the insurance company. In response, the insurance company even asked the family doctor to prove that the friend had no diabetes. The friend asked the insurance company: the results of the tests are normal. Do you still need proof? Answer: yes! Finally, the friend went to see the family doctor again, issued a certificate, the insurance company gave the money. So, a family doctor's certificate is important.
A family doctor may not treat difficult diseases, but he knows who to recommend you for. Again, family doctors are important in Australia's medical system. The weight of the recommendation he wrote to you determines your priority in public hospitals; if he says the patient is estimated to be an advanced stage of cancer (but you are early), the public hospital will treat you immediately.
Medical charges in Australia
The family doctor can take as much as he wants. For the rich, they are willing to spend more and buy a good service, so each time they see a family doctor, they don't think it's expensive to pay $50; but it's not the same for ordinary people.
Bulk Billing
The Australian has developed a family doctor's fee-reference standard for decades, about $37 a time; this $37 is the money you'd like to pay for you every time you visit a family doctor. If your family doctor receives you $50, then you need to pay $13. So the people don't have to pay for a penny every time they see a Medicare card. So, if you're looking for a non-paying family doctor, you'll ask if he's a "Bulk Billing".
If your illness requires a small operation, as long as the family doctor can do it, it is included in his one-time fee; If you need a blood test, do some pathological tests, your family doctor will transfer you to a specialized pathology lab, (Pathology Lab), such as Healthscope.. Usually you can check it right away, but the result is sent directly to your family doctor. If you have a problem, the family doctor will call you immediately; if there is no phone call or letter, usually there will be no big problem; if you are not at ease, you can call the family doctor for the results in a day or two. These tests are usually free of charge; if you are not sure, you can ask your family doctor.
The cost of medicine (prescribed by the family doctor):
Unfortunately, family doctors write lists that we pay for ourselves; one exception is that you have a low-income card, (Concession Card). If you have a low income or no job, you can apply for a low income card. With a low-income card, no matter how expensive the charge is, you can get all the drugs for $5; and if you spend more than $1,000 a year, the goverment pays for all the excess. In other words, if you spend $5,000 a year on $5 for a drug, you only need $1,000 for yourself.
Surgery and treatment:
When it comes to the cost of surgery, the first thing to be clear is the difference between emergency surgery (Surgry) and treatment of (Treatment). Surgery is to pull you into the o. R. and get a few knives. Operations are divided into emergency and non-emergency operations:
emergency operation
An emergency operation refers to an operation that will be performed immediately after you are taken to a hospital because of the danger of your life, and there is no need to wait. If you are taken to a public hospital, it is free; a private hospital will save you first and then ask you for money.
Non-emergency operation
Non-emergency surgery refers to a procedure that can be dragged without an emergency, and the usual definition is that the doctor believes that your symptoms can be at least 24 hours without a risk of life. This type of procedure can be done in a family doctor or in a hospital, depending on the circumstances.
treat
Treatment is when you get a few surgeries or you don't need an operation or you can't do it, but you still have to medically cure your disease (for example, tumors are removed first and then treated with chemo).? If you have mental problems, what you need is not surgery, but treatment.
ambulance
If you have a poor card, the ambulance is free; if not, it is very unfortunate. In Australia (except Queensland and Tasmania), if you need an ambulance or ambulance plane, you have to pay for it yourself, about $500 to $600 a time; If you have insurance, the insurance company usually pays for you, but it's not unlimited. It usually pays you once or twice a year. Worse still, you don't think you're dying, you can call an ambulance or an ambulance plane home. Usually, when you dial 000, you are asked questions; if your answer makes them think you won't have immediate life problems, they suggest you take a taxi to the hospital yourself. 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, all the fees are free, including the cost of medication during your stay in hospital; and, more importantly, as long as you are a permanent resident or citizen of Australia, you are entitled to free public hospital treatment. Of course, for non-emergency surgery, it usually takes a long time. For example, you are found to have a tumor that is not life-threatening, which is not an emergency operation in Australia. It usually depends on the size and severity of your tumor to determine whether you have surgery first or someone in front of you. Queuing is difficult for the Chinese to accept, it is better to have a problem now and have an operation now, but I'm sorry, Australian public hospitals have to line up. Of course, you can go to a private hospital to operate on your own, which is the quickest solution, usually in a few days, but it's normal to spend tens of thousands of dollars, so you need to buy private health insurance.
In Australia, an emergency is recommended by a family doctor, in addition to going directly to a hospital. The family doctor will write to the hospital to tell you what treatment you need, and the hospital will make the appropriate arrangements upon receipt of the notice, and then inform you to go to the hospital. Usually, if you are accepted by a public hospital and have to stay in a hospital for a few days, then you are a "hospital patient," and you are free of charge. Sometimes, you just have to go to a hospital for a little surgery or special check-up that can be done in a day, and you don't need to be hospitalized at all. You're also a "hospital patient." As long as it's a "hospital patient," there's always a line up for free public hospitals, so patients sometimes have to go to private hospitals or private specialist clinics.
If you go to a private hospital, there are two costs involved, one is the cost of a private hospital (Hospital Expense), includes hospitalization fees, operating room costs, all the medicine used in the hospital, and the cost of ITC (Intensive Care) and so on; The second is the cost of treatment (Medical Expense), is usually an expert doctor, surgeon, anesthesiologist, etc. Usually, goverment (Medicare) doesn't pay for private hospitals, but it pays 75% for treatment, and the remaining 25% needs to be paid for by yourself. The fee here refers to the reference price for the goverment charge for treatment of the disease in a hospital, which is usually much more expensive for a private doctor, such as $2000 for gastroscopy and $1,000 for goverment, so goverment will pay you $750, You have to pay yourself $1250, not 25%; It would be better if you had private insurance, and at least 25% of the remaining expenses would be paid for by the insurance company.
You might think you're gonna have to pay $1000? So what's the use of this private insurance? The key is to see what kind of insurance you are buying. There are many kinds of private insurance, and the expensive ones usually help you pay all the expenses. If you have private health care, it doesn't mean you can go to any private hospital, but expensive insurance will give you more choice and cheaper insurance will allow you to go to a private hospital signed with the insurance company. If you go to the hospital designated by the insurance company, you won't have to pay for it. It's hard to say anything else.
Sometimes, you don't need to go to a hospital, your family doctor sends you a letter asking you to go to a private specialist clinic; if that's the case, you're a "non-inpatient." For "non-inpatients," goverment pays you 85% of the specialist clinic fee, and you pay 15% yourself; Again, the fee here is the goverment reference price, (Medicare Benefit Schedule Fee), your specialist doctor usually charges more than that, so you're likely to pay more than 15% of your own money. In addition, the goverment rules that private insurance can't pay for that 15%, so as long as you're a "non-inpatient", you're sure to spend some money on your own.
However, goverment has Medicare Safety Net and Extended Medicare Safety Net, which means that if you spend more than $388.80 to see a doctor as a "non-inpatient" during the year, then if you go to see a doctor again, goverment will pay 100% for it. Remember, specialist clinics may charge you $200, but goverment charges a reference price of only $100, So you have to pay yourself $100.Extended Medicare Safety Net, which means you spent more than $1126 or $562.90 as a "non-inpatient" over the year (if you're poor), and goverment will help you pay 80% of the amount you have to pay for yourself. So if you reach the Extended Medicare Safety Net level, when your specialist clinic charges you $200 but the reference price for goverment is only $100, then you can pay $20 yourself and the other $80 will be paid by goverment.
On Australian Medical Insurance
It is necessary to buy Australian private health insurance in order not to wait in line to see a doctor and to be able to go to private hospitals for better service.
In fact, public health care is also an insurance, and premiums are deducted from our income. When filing taxes every year, you will see something called Medicare Levy, which is 1.5% of your income. As long as you have income, you have to pay 1.5% tax to buy this Medicare Levy insurance; If your income is low, you don't even have to pay this tax, but you can still enjoy Medicare;. If your income exceeds $77,000, or if you and your spouse earn more than $154,000, then you have to pay 1% more Medicare Levy Subcharge. on a 1.5% tax basis How can I not pay this 1% tax? Then you have to buy a private medical insurance. Note that income here refers to annual income.
The truth is, goverment encourages people to take advantage of their youth and buy private health insurance early. As a rule, if you buy private health insurance from the age of 31, goverment pays you 30% a year, 35% by the age of 65 and 40% by the age of 70.
If you are not a permanent resident of Australia, can you buy medical insurance? Yes! Many insurance companies offer private health insurance for people who come to work or travel to Australia; if you have accompanying families, they can also take out private health insurance, which is about 30% more expensive than permanent residents or citizens of Australia. To emphasize, if you are getting a work visa, because you are not a permanent resident or citizen of Australia, you do not have to pay the 1.5% Medicare Levy tax, because you cannot enjoy the treatment of Medicare; In other words, when you get a tax rebate, you can get the 1.5% tax back from the goverment, so you may pay less than Australia's permanent residents or citizens. Here are a few insurance companies to advise you. They are:
1. medibank
Web site: www.medibank.com.au
2. Bupa
Web site: www.hba.com.au
3. nib
Web site: www.nib.com.au
4. iSelect
Web site: www.iselect.com.au/ talk about how to better protect yourself and your family in Australia
Medicare only protects you from paying too much for treatment in private hospitals when you are sick. But once a serious illness fails to work, your income security insurance, (Income Protection Insurance), is particularly important. But if you spend your money on 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 benefits:
1. The money in Super doesn't come out when you retire (except in exceptional circumstances); if retirement is far from you, it's better to spend it where it's good for you now.
2. Usually Super and the insurance company have a contract, and it's cheaper to buy income insurance through Super than you buy it directly with the insurance company.
So if you can't work, how long can the income security risk be? It is usually up to 80% of your income, from 2 to 5 years depending on the type of insurance you buy. That is, if your annual income is $100000, then you can buy an income of $80,000 and the premium may be $5 a week; if you want to pay a premium, you can buy 60000 of your income security, and the premium may be $4 a week. Remember, you can buy less, but you can't buy more; if your income is only $60000, you can buy up to 48000 income security risks. And, the money you've got from the insurance company is to pay the income tax.
The premium also has something to do with your career. If you're a construction worker, you're definitely more likely to get hurt at work than working in the office, so your premium is a little more expensive; usually, professionals have the cheapest premiums. In addition, if you are sick and unable to work, you will have 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.