Ironically Medicare is at the core of all these questions.
Firstly; Can anyone tell me why every Medicare claim for payment by our doctors has an automatic Medicare Item Number for a sum in the vicinity of $8.00? I am told it is for such consumables as a wooden tongue depressor or the like which I would have thought came with the practice costs.I have my complete Medicare history and there are hundreds of these payments.
Secondly; Once upon a time when we went to the doctor there was a claim form with the item number embossed along with our Medicare card and we got a copy thus knowing what the government was being charged for on our behalf. Now it is an automatic process initiated by the receptionist at the behest of the doctor who can claim what he wants without any oversight. How many single consultations turn into doubles each day? A lot of extras can be earned.
Thirdly Medicare has done away with cash rebates. Now you have to provide your bank details for direct payment. Everybody has a Medicare Card there therefore the government now has everybodies bank details. Why? Hullo George Orwell.

Dear Chris,

So why do you have any dealings with Medicare to begin with?

What makes it right to demand that other people pay for services that you or your family require?
Then even while doing so you still complain that they have your information?

If you require medical services, then just pay for them, in cash (unless you are truly poor and hungry, but then it seems that you still have an internet connection, so give it up first). This way you won't need to give the clinic any numbers or personal details!

No, you don't have to have a Medicare card. Even if it arrives in the mail you can chuck it straight in the rubbish bin. All you are legally required is to pay that 1.5% tax (soon becoming 2%).

The more people ignore Medicare and pay for their own medical needs, the more the government will have to abolish their red-tape procedures and the public-servants that handle them - and the more the doctor will be accountable to you, the customer, and to none else.

Y you baffle me with your question to Chris.
Are you sure even private patients do not see some medicare billing as well?
Chris has bought up an interesting truth.
We know, if we have bothered to keep up to date in this area, the country is short of non suburban Doctors.
And the ability to make more money in citys than the bush may play a roll.
And I am unsuprised by what looks like thieving from the public purse shown here.
We, and the western world,look after our sick better than others.
But once on the governments payroll, payments are out of control.
We must do some thing but what?
Any move will have impact, some we do not expect.
Socializing health further is no answer, privatizing it, increases costs as Chris has shown.

Dear Yuyutsu,
I would love to give it all up but "fear is the key" and yes I just had the pleasure of paying (cash $220) to a doctor for 15 minutes of his time. That equates the roughly $880 p/h or $35,200 p/w or a staggering $1,830,400 a year. Realistically no one is worth that much.
From your post I feel a lot of Ayn Rand (Atlas Shrugged) am I right.
I simply feel something is wrong somewhere.

Dear Chris,

I wouldn't go as far as Ayn Rand as I really feel that she was too extreme. I do believe that the state should help those who really have no money for their medical expenses, but it should be done as a last resort, not as a standard routine of middle-class welfare.

Perhaps the numbers you mentioned are exaggerated because doctors do have significant overheads and cannot only receive patients non-stop, but yes, doctors can currently charge as much as they like, regardless whether they are competent or not, because the state foots the bill.

Dear Chris,

<<I would love to give it all up but "fear is the key">>

That's what insurance is for, I mean true private-insurance, rather than the current compulsory scheme that is really just another tax. An insurance where you can set exactly what you want to be insured for and cannot otherwise afford yourself. You could for example set a lower limit of $10000 or $50000 which you can pay yourself and only have the insurance cover those rare treatments and operations that cost more; or you could insure yourself and your family to receive overseas and alternative treatments if needed.

Dear Belly,

<<Are you sure even private patients do not see some medicare billing as well?>>

What if you just refuse to give them your Medicare number?
What if you insist paying it all in cash?
I thought that the doctor is obliged under Hippocrates' oath to treat you in any case...

At the last resort, if the receptionist is so thick-headed, you can tell her that you are a tourist.

<<Socializing health further is no answer, privatizing it, increases costs as Chris has shown.>>

The answer is to make Medicare optional.

Here you go, chrisgaff1000...

http://www.health.gov.au/internet/mbsonline/publishing.nsf/Content/Medicare-Benefits-Schedule-MBS-1

You have your history.

Type the item number into the Search MBS box (top right).

Then remember to come back here and tell us the answer.

I followed this procedure to find this in the G7.1 Billing Procedures note:

"Paid Accounts

The patient may pay the account and subsequently present the receipt at a Medicare customer service centre for assessment and payment of the Medicare benefit in cash.

In these circumstances, where a claimant personally attends a Medicare office to obtain a cash or EFT deposit for the payment of Medicare benefits, the claimant is not required to complete a Medicare Patient Claim Form (PC1).

A Medicare patient claim form (PC1) must be completed where the claimant is mailing his/her claim for a cheque or EFT payment of Medicare benefits or arranging for an agent to collect cash on the claimant's behalf at a Medicare office.

Alternatively a patient may lodge their claim electronically from the doctors' surgery using Medicare Australia's Online claiming."

Why did Australia get lumbered with Medicare anyway. The concept has been tried and found wanting elsewhere, but seems that wasn't considered sufficient justification form our numbskulled bloodsucking parasites to give it a miss. The Queensland free hospital system pre Medicare was funded by the Golden Casket & worked just fine. Private medicos didn't have anything to do with the later gubmunt handout that predictably led to dramatically reduced service & excessive costs. Where we had quite affordable individual GPs working from a home-based facility, available 24 / 7 & happy to do house calls, we now have a corporatized rabble with consultations far too short for proper diagnosis and steadily escalating costs. In particular, the added costs are going to health care management parasites rather than to the practitioners who are expected to work harder for less money. I guess Medicare is just another example of the bright ideas dreamed up by utterly inept bloodsucking parasites.

Medicare is just another example of the rich, propping up the poor, as the more you earn, the more you pay in to Medicare, yet, if you earn too much, you get cut off.

If only those who enjoy the benefits of a health care card, appreciated those who actually foot the bill.

As for doctors earning 1.8 million per year, if only people knew what actually happens in the running of a business, other than just the collection of money..

Train more doctors!

Smash the doctors union (AMA), which considering most doctors consider themselves a business, must be verging on a cartel. A cartel that restricts doctor numbers to enhance their own wages. To all of our detriment.

Disgraceful.

A cartel that restricts doctor numbers to enhance their own wages. To all of our detriment.
Mikk,
They put the so-called Tories to shame. There are many competent medical people coming to Australia only to be just so disillusioned by the jealousy-driven self protection mentality here.

Unfortunately Medicare has turned the family doctor into this huge money driven medical supermarket, where the primary focus is on numbers and patient care is senandary.

Non more so than with the introduction of the super clinics.

You know it's a sham when you go to see your doc about a sore knee, then if you mention any other problem, out comes the second form for you to sign.

I have two relies who are both doctors and they run a smaller medical clinic in Townsville.

They give great service to their patients (not clients) and allow for no more than THREE patients per hour, as they provide the old fashion service of, while you are here, is there anything else you have a problem with.

They know everyone by name, known their kids, even know what the kids are in to, similar to the old fashioned butcher.

I guess the next step is for Coles and Wollies to instal 'self assessment terminals' whereby one swipes their card, talks to an animated voice, then gets a printed script for the chemist.

Don't laugh, cause they would if they could and government would do nothing to stop them.

My question is this, why do we have to in to banks for loans when the government prints our currency? Banks use computer money 1s and 0s and in exchange we give them real money at high intrest rates. I cant see a 300,000 loan and be expected to pay it all off and give the bank a cool 400,000 on top 4 a touch on a pc. Customer service or legal pillage?

The AMA is unquestionably part of the problem, however I believe the commercialism of medicine is a far more significant factor in exponentially escalating costs. When its all said and done, commerce has only one goal, namely the pursuit of money to the exclusion of all else. back in the 'good old days', even the trickle of medical graduates was sufficient for the then population, then some enterprising clowns dreamed up the 'big Australia' nonsense, and subsequently others of like mind joined the system and commercialized everything not nailed down and a few things that were. The untold arrogance & avarice of the snouts ensures their game will continue until it inevitably disappears up its fundamental. As I've noted elsewhere, the question to be answered is exactly what happens to snouts when the money disappears ??