After paying my doctors bills, about three hundred dollars, I went to Medicare to fill in the online register paperwork. What a waste oif time.

First I didn't realize it was now part of Centrelink, so here I was seated waiting for my name to be called, and half an hour later I got up and left. There was ONE PERSON on the counter.

The lady on the floor asked me if was ok and I told her this was a joke I pay so much into this fund and this is how I get treated.

All I can say if you are going to hurt yourself, loose your job first because then you wont get charged in the first place.

So my $1700 per year in Medicare levy is for what! There is no longer a Medicare as far as I can tell.

You done what Mal wants you to do.

Any normal person would have done that on line, which is another thing Mal wants you to do.

Why did not wherever you paid your money do that for you.

If we had an NBN it would be much easier. It will take Labor and billions of $ to rectify that.

*All I can say if you are going to hurt yourself, loose your job first because then you wont get charged in the first place.*

The presumed truth in that statement, is based on a fallacy!

Rehctub,

I see you didn't enjoy your little jaunt to Centrelink to put in a claim with Medicare.

Guess who came up with the fantastic idea to amalgate those two govt agencies in the same building and staffed at a minimum?

The Abbott govt, that's who - great stuff, eh!

And you reacted exactly as is intended by walking out in disgust - because you can afford to.

As for Medicare - if you had been seriously injured by your petulance and outrage, the system would have treated you for free in any public hospital emergency department ...

Dear Rehctub,

<<So my $1700 per year in Medicare levy is for what!>>

Just think of it as ransom-money. You pay the bastards what they want, then you can go and do whatever you want with the rest....

Or can you?

The existence of Medicare prevents us from having an appropriate and truly-private health insurance. We are unable to take an Australian private-health insurance without providing a Medicare number (the only exception being if we hold a temporary working visa).

Now the way it works is that while your private health fund will refund you for all (or nearly all) your medical expenses, for most medical items it will partially charge Medicare and partially top it up itself. There is no legal way for us to claim only the top-up part from our health-fund, requesting them not to forward our claim to Medicare in the first place and to not accept the Medicare payment on our behalf.

For me, as I refuse to accept the money that was stolen from you, Rehctub, this means that I cannot claim on most medical items at all and need to pay them out-of-pocket. I still keep a so-called-private health insurance only to cover any hospital-bed costs because they could potentially rise to a 6-digit figure and fortunately, unlike doctor/medical-costs, they can still be claimed without Medicare involvement.

Dear Rehctub,

Many doctors now offer Medicare electronic claiming.

This allows you to claim your Medicare rebate when you pay
your account at the doctor's surgery. If the doctor uses
the EFTPOS system your rebate is paid into your nominated
account almost immediately. If your doctor uses the
internet-based system - your rebate is paid into your
account within a few days. The doctor's secretary should
have told you this.