这个政府SUCKS!!!!
Medicare in bad health
Wednesday June 3, 2009, 9:35 am
Sick Australians are going to have to pay up when Medicare, Australia's free healthcare system, is forced to close its doors.
That time may come sooner than expected.
In an interview, NSW Health director-general Debora Piccone said that "we are really on the edge of losing the universal healthcare system that this country has."
Rising costs and an ageing population have sparked concerns the medicare system could come to an end in just five years.
"I would have (previously) said we'd had 10 years to run. It's now looking like we've got five years to run because the cost escalations are so significant," she said.
State health authorities have revealed we are heading for a US-style user pays system, where insurance premiums exceed $3000 even with employer subsidies.
Under the US system there is no free health care. It is a "for-profit system" in which people only get the treatment they can afford - not the treatment they need. Essentially, your health insurance fund - not doctors - decide what medical treatment will be given.
In the US, where there is no Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, the cost of routine diabetes, cholesterol and blood-pressure medications is around $1,000 per month.
All of this change is prompting a plan to combine state and federal health funding to take control of hospitals and patient care.
Professor Piccone and Health Minister John Della Bosca are now working on a plan to pool all state and federal health funding and have it redistributed by a joint partnership between the two governments.
Mr Della Bosca said the overhaul - the biggest since universal health care was introduced under Gough Whitlam - would deliver "a single mandate" of patient care.
In its first stages the move would address:
* The 1000-odd state-run hospital beds occupied by elderly who should be in federally run nursing homes;
* Overlap between drugs handed out in state-run hospitals and purchased via the federal PBS;
* Revisiting the roles of various state and federally regulated medical staff in rural areas.
The plan would need Canberra's approval, but Mr Della Bosca said he was confident the Rudd Government would respond positively.
Should we have seen this coming?
All the way back in 2001, John Howard promised Medicare would remain, but it would be the Medicare that he and the 2001 Health Minister, Michael Wooldridge, had in mind: a shadow of the universal, bulk-billing, public system.
It seems that their long awaited dreams are finally coming into fruition after all.
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什么都和美国学，有本事薪水和消费水平也和美国比啊
真不知道之前政府10几年的盈余都到哪里去了，遇上经济危机就知道打老百姓的主意
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真到那个时候这日子还怎么过呀？只有但愿大家都不要生病才好。
楼上的说的很是， 就知道比美国差的地方， 那美国好的地方怎么不照抄呢？
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所以说这个政府不行呀，就知道给钱。一个月给了好几次钱了也不见经济好转到哪里去。现在还说私人医疗保险的30%rebat也要取消。猪流感么又控制不好。叫我们老百姓以后怎么过日子。看来以后是不是要入籍还真的要好好考虑考虑了呢
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对Rudd政府非常非常失望， 尽管从来没有看好过他
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我是不打算入籍了，入不入籍有什么区别？福利没什么福利，税务交一大堆，房租消费又贵，社会治安又差，真是畸形社会。。。
[ 本帖最后由 Mandy99 于 2009-6-3 13:34 编辑 ]
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就是，什么破政府，有本事把经济搞上去才是正道。美国税率那么低怎么不学，美国物价那么低(相对于他们的收入)怎么不学？
唉.... 以前听人家说来澳洲不图钱，就图个福利好环境好，可现在眼看着福利越来越差，环境也越来越差了。
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楼上的诸位消消火，冰冻三尺非一日之寒，现政府上台才2年多，把这个全部怪到工党头上有点不公平吧。事实上前政府尽管有大量财政盈余，却减少对公共医疗系统的投资才是罪魁祸首，因为自由党当初的目的就是建立一个美国式的医疗体系。教育体系也是一样，前政府大量削减拨款，导致澳洲大学每年政府资助名额的大量减少，使得澳洲的教育体系成为第3世界水平。自由党在教育，医疗上的政策才是上次遭选民唾弃的原因。
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美国税率也不低阿
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美国物价相对他们的收入低?没觉得啊...大概我呆的时间太短,还没机会体会...
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哎，前几年还明显觉得国内比这差很多，但仅仅几年过去，发现差距越来越小
尤其是大城市，甚至比这里还好些了。。。。。还是别入籍了，观望一下吧
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欢迎大家回国！
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还好还有几年，抓紧生几个
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哎~~
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