What happens if you need an operation and you dont have health insurance? Do I really need it? Wont medicare pay? I work and pay my medicare levy. Our insurance is $140 a month for family cover. Australian's to answer please.
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For all you americans, Medicare is not the equivalent of your Medicaid or whatever it is you have in the USA. In Australia, anyone, no matter how rich or poor, has the right to be treated as a public patient at public hospital, so stop acting like this person is being a scab for asking this question, because that simply isn't the case. Private health insurance is mainly for people who want to be treated as private patients. You can be treated as a private patient if you don't have insurance, but you'll pay around $1000 a day just for the bed, then there's the cost of surgeons (around $800 an hour) plus a heap of other expenses... so generally people who want to be treated privately have insurance. If you're admitted to hospital as a public patient, you get stuck with the first surgeon available. If you're a private patient and the surgery isn't a matter of life or death, you can choose your own surgeon. Waiting times for most "non urgent" public surgeries are currently around 2 years. Waiting times are MUCH shorter for private patients. If you're employed and you need to spend a while in hospital as a public patient, you may see some additional debts in your tax return. ...but if don't use the health system at all and you earn over $50,000 and don't have private insurance, you'll also get stung at tax time! If you have a health care card, Medicare covers all cost. If you'd like to keep your insurance, but think you're paying too much, head on over to http://www.iselect.com.au/ to see if you can get yourself a better deal on insurance.
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