Australian Health Care

I spent a month in I.C.U in Melbourne Australia, from a Really nasty Flue-Asthmatic episode and a month in Rehab. Cost to me- Zero, Best healthcare in the world, for the best country in the world, bar none!

I feel very fortunate to live in Australia. When I was young, I was hospitalised for months, had multiple bloods and tests (xray and ultrasounds etc) run every day sometimes multiple tests and bloods taken daily. The doctors and nurses alway made sure my parents and in the loop and felt as comfortable as possible. Once I started getting better, I then needed to go through physio therapy and they even threw in a therapist for me to talk to, to make sure I was coping. My parents fortunately didn't have to pay for any of it, because it was a public hospital. Additionally my mum was able to take time of work and still get paid, under the carers leave then my dad took time off too, same thing. Yes taxes are annoying, but at the same time it's random situations like this that make it worth it. Even if it only happens once in a life time. haha

I recently had open heart surgery (triple bypass) and cancer surgery in australia. It cost 92k my bill was Zero

I think this is a good video, although it doesn't accurately represent the Australian Health Care system IMHO (being a health care professional who works in a large public hospital in Australia). It is possible to see a GP for nothing, and to buy generic drugs on the PBS which significantly lowers their cost. However, the part I find the most interesting is you can attend an emergency department, gets test, scans, x-rays, be seen by specialist Dr's, physio's, dieticians, etc, have multiple drugs administered, be admitted and continue treatment, have ANY operation required, have follow up care, be discharged, receive hospital in the home, or a district nursing service, and not pay 1 cent, not for any of it, not for the tests, the drugs, the operations, the follow up care. That is what makes it so great, not limits on out of pocket spending for the people seeing their GPs. This also comes with the highest standards, and strict targets on waiting times. Outpatient public elective waiting times are always an issue, which is where the private system comes into play. However, if you are actually sick, or break something, you have quick access to free healthcare, which will never make you reach for your wallet. Also the "tax incentives" might save you money on tax, however to have private insurance costs allot more then the Medicare tax levy (when insurance it is not needed in Australia), so in-fact you are loosing money. Not many Australians know this though, and the incentive does decrease the burden on public health expenditure. 

Again, as an American: WHY DON'T WE HAVE THIS?!?

Was with you right up until "obesity is extremely low". Even by US standards my understanding was that we're not far behind, and rising.

I’m always bemused by the anti-universal health care brigade in the US, especially the view that it is ‘socialist’. Well, yes - just because something is socialist doesn’t automatically make it bad. No-one should ever miss out on health care due to cost. We love it here.

I live in Australia and have limited private health care cover (some limited dental, optical and ambulance cover) Last year I developed a kidney infection causing my kidneys to crash. I ended up with severe gout throughout my body and was in extreme pain. Ended up getting an ambulance to the hospital where I spent a week getting treated. A week after that I noticed my left calf was sore when walking. Diagnosed with DVT(deep vein thrombosis) caused by my inability to move about when the gout was bad. This then led to PE(pulmonary embolism). That's blood clots on the lung and another 4 days in hospital. Overall, including the following 4 months, I have had xrays, MRI's, numerous ultrasounds, cortisone injection in my shoulder and more blood tests than I can count. Total cost was $0. Everything covered on Medicare. My only on-going costs at the moment is medicine which is quite cheap in any case. The only thing my health cover paid for was the ambulance, saved about $750 on that one. I wonder how much all this would have cost in America without insurance. PS, our obesity is definitely not low...

Thanks for saying such nice things about Australia. Having lived in several countries apart from Oz, I can safely say that this is a great country for medical and pharmaceutical care!

This is a hard time to make a video about Australia's health system because we have a government who seem pretty keen to dismantle various elements of our public health system. This video could be very out of date quite soon. As an Australian, that really worries me.

God Bless Australia of your Healthcare System !

Sounds like the USA can learn a lot from Australia about health care.

“Yes that’s complicated. Thanks, Australia.” Basically sums up everything about Australia.

I’m Australian and 35 years old and and didn’t know a lot of this information, mainly because I know I can go to a hospital for a non-elective issue and it will be looked after for free. I can see a GP for free. My prescriptions are under $6. If referred to a specialist, that’s usually free too, including x-rays and blood tests.

As an Australian I don't find it complicated, you get used to it 😌 like most people under 30 I don't have private health insurance, most people don't find it worthwhile financially unless they have a lot of health needs especially using a lot of allied health professionals. My husband has the absolute cheapest private health cover ($80AUD a month) which covers life saving essentials like surgery, hospital care, ambulance, essential prosthetics. For him, who has had 2 or 3 surgeries every year for the past 4 years, this has saved us many thousands. The most he would pay for surgery and hospital stay is $1500AUD, sometimes it's less ($500 for surgeon, $500 for anesthetist, $500 for hospital). He recently got an essential prosthetic that would have costed $20'000 or more, for free. We often try to imagine how much our combined medical costs would be in America, it's hard to know but I would estimate half a million dollars with the surgeries, numerous specialists, allied health, doctors, medications etc. We would be completely bankrupt so many times over, and he would almost certainly be dead unless his parents had sold there house and lost there entire life savings to support him and his medical costs. As it is we have had to pay approximately $6000 AUD each year, and this is extreme for Australia because of his fairly extreme health situation. But $6k a year is something you can work into a budget for a year and so we have remained debt free, and he remains alive.

Also important to note that private health insurance is usually paid for by the individual, and is very affordable.

Australia = Best healthcare in the world! Proud to be Aussie!

It's not true that obesity is low at all! >20% of the adult population is obese, and about 60% or more of the population is overweight. It's a MASSIVE health problem for us!

I'm a ex-Army aussie. Veterans get everything free(wounded ones) and everyone else pays 2% of there taxable income for medicare. What you pay out of pocket just clam it back at tax time. The rich pay more to pick up the slack from the poorer.

Some gripes I've got on the Australian health care system, as I am Australian, is the waiting list for surgery in both medical and dental surgery. If the waiting time is brought down I.e a more broader range of Hospitals throughout the country with the proper facilities in place to operate, then that should be considered. My other gripe is Medical assist for homeless, yes every country has homeless people, but we have one of the best health care systems and state of the art hospital of the developed countries, yet a homeless person can't go in to one as they don't have a fixed address and Medicare needs a fixed address for anyone wanting free or subsidised health care.