Medicare

[longlongwaytogo]

Australians, what's your experience with Medicare

Comments

[threeparts]

I have a health care card too, so things are even cheaper for me. A month's worth of antidepressants is $5AU. Three months worth of BC is $15AU. A doctor's visit? Absolutely nothing. An uninsured American friend of mine was recently panicking because she couldn't afford the $90 for her three months of BC.

My fiance is American and when he was here on a visitor's visa he had to go to the doctor for a chest infection. The visit was $40, the antibiotics another $15.

My mother has had two operations. The first was a collapsed lung. Her emergency hospitalisation and care cost us nothing. The second was having her gall bladder removed. It was elective surgery and cost her about $140 and a month-long wait, I believe.

[longlongwaytogo]

Wow, $90 for that??

[pineapple_head]

I have had experiences in both public and private hospitals insured and uninsured

[longlongwaytogo]

I have seen and heard some fairly unpleasant things at public and private hospitals but honestly feel you can crack a bad day or a bad time anywhere, but our basic standards are pretty good.

Can I ask for examples? :)

[pineapple_head]

A family member tried without any luck to alert nursing staff to the unpleasantly tight bandaging around her legs. As it was a pressure bandage and meant to be very tight it was ignored despite her protesting that it was doing harm. The bandages cut into the tops and bottoms of her legs and required 2 operations (plastic surgery) to heal the deep wide cuts

[longlongwaytogo]

Yeah, that sort of thing really sucks. But I do have to think that it happens everywhere.

[springdove]

I am an American engaged to an Australian and looking forward to the socialized health care when I move there

[springdove]

continued

[longlongwaytogo]

I've asked other people this too. What does 'high quality' mean to you?
Feel free to reply to other people's comments, maybe some of it will reassure you!

[springdove]

I'm not entirely sure what "high quality" means to me, to be perfectly honest. Sometimes it's hard to step back when you're in a country that's not your home country and realize that some of the differences aren't necessarily not as good but just different. For instance, I found it extremely frustrating not to have access to the over-the-counter meds I was used to getting here when I was over in Australia. It's hard to remember that that doesn't make your meds not as good, just different, especially when you're sick and all you want is the meds that you know are tried and true and work. :/ I did find it frustrating that the grocery stores didn't have near the selection of OTC meds to which I am accustomed. My theory is that's a difference in culture due to the socialized versus private health care. I reckon Americans are more prone to self-medicate to avoid the cost, and I'm used to that and prefer it to visiting the doctor for every little thing

[daisythemoocow]

Medicare is great, from my perspective.

Obviously, things could be better, I guess (everything could be free, ahahahaha), but it's pretty darn good.

There's this thing called a Safety Net, and when you spend more than X amount of dollars in one year on appointments and whatever, the percentage of dollars you get back from Medicare skyrockets, up to like, 95% or something. My famil's hit it, and so on my $102odd specialist appointment, I got $96 or so back. Freaking awesome.

[mamasboo]

LLWTG, I think that if you talk to people in America who have been on Medicare or are still on it, you'll get a good idea of how "socialized" or "government" care is. I think it's also going to depend on the city. When I was a teen I was on Medicaid (government medical program) and lived in NY. I saw a dentist under Medicaid who was utter crap, and the doctors were crap as well. I had a doctor whose wait times could be 3 or 4 hours. The dentist was shoddy and Medicaid would only pay for amalgam fillings (you know, the cheap silver ones with all that lovely mercury in them