No room at the Inn

[wide eyed and legless]

My wife had to rush me to the hospital last Tuesday night, we have top hospital cover private insurance, 2 private hospitals close by, South Eastern full to capacity, went to the Valley Private also full to capacity, spent the night on a trolley in emergency.
Had to wait until a bed became available at South Eastern, 11. 30am following morning hadn't seen a doctor since the previous night.
Which government is going to fix the healthcare system before it collapses completely, taxes have got to be raised but no government to campaign saying taxes have to be raised to fix up education and healthcare.

 

[Mattress]

Unfortunately your story is commonplace these days, and that's at a time when hospitals are having "normal" days.

We are well and truly screwed if Australia is hit with a major health incident (Ebola anyone?)

 

[poggor]

what was wrong with you?

 

[TimT]

Best wishes, Wide eyed... hope you're making a quick recovery.

 

[DU99]

It's the same over in the western suburbs..Private or Public you don't get any better treatment.People over here come straight to the hospital instead going to local doctor.which ties up the resources the hospital has.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

And the current government wants to dismantle our public health system by stealth and make it more American style.

IE...if your poor, suck ****, no health care for you.

 

[Liam_snorkel]

We should have been taxing the fck out of our resource profits for decades to pay for our health & education systems, a la Norway. IMHO.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

No, No, No, Liam. The mining companies would not be able to make enough money.....best to tax the poor to subsidise the rich

 

[Airgead]

No, No, No, Liam. The mining companies would not be able to make enough money.....best to tax the poor to subsidise the rich

Because all that money then trickles back down to the poor and makes them rich....

Except that it doesn't.

 

[spog]

We should have been taxing the fck out of our resource profits for decades to pay for our health & education systems, a la Norway. IMHO.

I was blown away when my Norwegien uncle told me of their healthcare system,it actually gives a stuff about the people.
Mind you they pay for it in taxes ( gst of 27 percent when I was there in 2001) but its there for the people.
An Auntie needed an op and the only place was in Oslo at he other end of the country so a nurse was flown up to Vardo,sorted things then both Auntie and Uncle were flown down and accommodated ,op done then both flown home with a nurse who stayed until all was well then the nurse was flown back to Oslo.
Brilliant stuff.
And here in Port Lincoln we have a brand new $40 million plus hospital revamp and extension,with no extra beds !
**** me,the governments logic is unbelievable at times.

 

[Bribie G]

When I arrived in Australia in the late 1970s there was a common saying "Australia is a great country... if you are young and healthy. "


Of course nowadays just being young is fast becoming a liability.

To put things in perspective, under the Fraser Government you had to pay $20 to visit a GP and that was a lot of money back then, especially if you needed two or three visits. In some states such as WA if you ended up in hospital then the fees would be garnisheed from your wages afterwards, a bit like child support or SPER.

 

[wide eyed and legless]

what was wrong with you?

I am on chemo drugs and one of the side effects is potassium deficiency which can cause erratic heart rates.

It is pretty disgusting that a government can't get a healthcare system to run efficiently and smoothly, the nurse had to go off and MAKE my breakfast, not just fetch it but to make it. GST & VAT are outdated revenue tools a few years ago in the UK I remember reading that they had a think tank set up and they said the best and fairest taxation to take the place of VAT was a tax on energy ie fuel, electricity and gas but now with the solar panels that seems to have put the dampeners on that.
I think that our GST must be one if not the lowest in the world, I am sure most people would be happy for a rise in GST if they could see something for it, and not cabinet ministers giving jobs for the boys with committees for everything that comes into their heads.

 

[Maheel]

Energy tax is a bad idea IMO as a normal 3 person house in Aus uses much the same power / gas / water no mater what you earn

GST normally makes the richer pay more as they are likely to spend more on GST items = more gst collected

IMO they should make the doctor tax happen, it would free up a fair amount of no-need to visit visits
if you rock up to the hospital there should be a payment required i reckon (managing it would be an issue)

Last time i went in for some stitches in my finger on a sunday i could not believe i was free and i could just walk out the door. That included a few docs having a look, xrays and associated medical supplies I was ready to break out the C-card to pay. Emergency (life threatening etc) should be free but .....

I am pretty well off and have worked bloody hard for it but still cannot believe how much tax my family unit pays each year. Making the rich pay more tax sure does not seem to solve the issue, so much is wasted by GOV.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

It should be free. That way everyone gets the same treatment.

Of course elective stuff like **** jobs and the like should not be.

 

[Bribie G]

GST replaced Sales Tax, that was levied at several rates. I was in Wholesale (worked for Allens Sweets and Rothmans from 1980 to about 1993) and if I foggily remember a lot of items were taxed at 17.5%, for example Televisions, VCRs and fur coats, but some items were higher, and foods were exempt.

Here's a rough breakdown

Coming from the UK which already had a 15% Value Added Tax, I didn't notice a big difference in the costs of living. Personally I'd be happy with a GST of 15% if they got rid of archaic **** like stamp duty that was introduced around the time of Ned Kelly. What the **** is the stamp? It was a way of collecting tax in the days of widespread population movement where it was impossible in those times to collect income tax etc. However now it's all to do with milking you if you buy a house or car.

 

[Maheel]

stamp or transfer duty is a state tax.... they love it to raise revenue

thats a pretty effective "rich person tax" who buy expensive houses or you help the GOV buy investing in a rental house.

Buying an investment house is providing social housing for the GOV......

In QLD its

Up to $5,000 Nil
$5,000 to $75,000 $1.50 for each $100, or part of $100, by which the dutiable value is more than $5,000

$75,000 to $540,000 $1,050 plus $3.50 for each $100, or part of $100, by which the dutiable value is more than $75,000

$540,000 to $1,000,000 $17,325 plus $4.50 for each $100, or part of $100, by which the dutiable value is more than $540,000

More than $1,000,000 $38,025 plus $5.75 for each $100, or part of $100, by which the dutiable value is more than $1,000,000

 

[spog]

I am on chemo drugs and one of the side effects is potassium deficiency which can cause erratic heart rates.

It is pretty disgusting that a government can't get a healthcare system to run efficiently and smoothly, the nurse had to go off and MAKE my breakfast, not just fetch it but to make it. GST & VAT are outdated revenue tools a few years ago in the UK I remember reading that they had a think tank set up and they said the best and fairest taxation to take the place of VAT was a tax on energy ie fuel, electricity and gas but now with the solar panels that seems to have put the dampeners on that.
I think that our GST must be one if not the lowest in the world, I am sure most people would be happy for a rise in GST if they could see something for it, and not cabinet ministers giving jobs for the boys with committees for everything that comes into their heads.

a
Hang in there and fight the bitch.


You mentioned solar panels,hmm,with 2 meters on a house with solar panels 1 being an import meter and the other being an export meter, meaning power used compared to power generated if that is not going to be used for taxation ( oops I do mean a levee) ,well it's going to happen especially here in south Oz I just know it will,a couple of years back some ******* pollie brought up the idea of charging people for the rainwater they collected in THEIR tanks.
And this state being the over taxed basket case that it is,well nothing would surprise me.
Umm,ahh **** on a stick this isn't the rant thread....

 

[wide eyed and legless]

There is no such thing as free medical, it all comes out of taxes, the problem is there isn't enough taxpayers money going into the health system, I agree with Maheel there should be a fee charged on people using the hospital resources instead of going to a local GP.
I thought the tax on energy would have been quite fair, the rich would tend to go for a larger gas guzzler as well as paying luxury car tax, a larger house would be consuming more energy for heating and cooling but with increased use of solar panels the government would be missing out on revenue, although the price of gas is increasing because of the use of solar panels as they have found in Germany so many people are getting their electricity through their own solar power that power stations are being mothballed and the price of gas has rocketed.
I have a substantial solar system on my roof for which I get a 60 cent feed into the grid and a charge of 16 cents for power I use, I link that to the gas bill and my total power bill is around $900 per annum which is almost all gas ( the solar isn't as efficient during winter obviously )

 

[hellbent]

I went to our local hospitals emergency ward with my wife who had scolded her arm pretty bad.
Anyway after waiting for near an hour for the on duty doc to turn up he had one look and confirmed with what the on duty Nurse had said...3rd degree burns, he was with us for no more than a minute!
The charge was $30 cash then $113.00 bill to medicare, all for one mins work. No wonder Doctors are hesitant in Sisters and Nurses doing the work to ease the load, what a rip off!

 

[DU99]

there was a move for pharmacist's to write scripts.