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Sunili's blog can now be found at sunili dot net!

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health insurance number crunching

There's quite a bit of debate re the Rudd/Swan/Gillard plan to change the thresholds for the Medicare Levy in tomorrow's budget.

I had a bit of a blue with my mother yesterday (yes, I know, Mother's Day, I should've kept my mouth shut) when I announced how happy I was that I can bail on my $41.05 a fortnight private health insurance from July 1.

OMG she says (essentially), you'll have to pay so much when you have to go to hospital for elective surgery!

For what, a boob job? Because I sure ain't electing to have scalpels hovering over me for any other non-emergency reason, and I really don't mind going to a public hospital. I spent 3 days in a hospital in Sri Lanka. RPH is heaven in comparison.

Health insurance is a crock of shit. If Howard needed to tax people to force them to sign up with his cronies, something was seriously wrong with the product. What exactly is the sense in the Government penalising people for not paying for a private service? Ask Johnny, 'cause it makes no sense to me.

The ruckus over the droves of people who may be quitting private health insurance if the tax changes come in should ring the alarm bells for health insurance companies. Why don't people want to purchase (or keep) their products? Could it possible be because... shock, horror... because it's not value for money??

Gasp.

But guess what? The health insurance companies knew that already! That's why they got Johnny and Co (Pillagers, Inc) to force people to sign up!

At the moment I am contracted to pay over a grand to my health insurance company. For what? For $120 back on a $300 pair of glasses. For $100 back on dental (that'd be, what, three teeth cleaned)? I actually can't afford physio, chiro, any of that other stuff, so I don't see why I need to be paying through my nose just to get some minuscule rebate. Maybe if I wasn't paying so much for health insurance, I could do a proper pilates class once a fortnight to fix my bloody sore back!!

Say this year I bought a pair of glasses for $300 (transitions! how good is not haing to carry a separate pair of sunnies?!) and went to the dentist for an annual clean and check-up, liberal estimate of $200.

With health insurance I will pay:

$1080 (Insurance)
$300 (Glasses)
$200 (Dentist)
-$220 (Rebate)
$1360 annual total.

That's right, $1360 for $500 worth of products/services.

I was never any good at Maths (I prefer shopping), but even I can see how shit that is.

At the moment, if I didn't have health insurance, I'd be smacked with the "Medicare Levy" for being a naughty girl who should really pay for shit I don't need.

I know I may occasionally get my debit card out to pay for something I don't really need, but guess what, I want it, and it's my money so I will damn well spend it on stuff I want. Isn't that what "liberal market economics" are all about, Johnny?

So from 1 July, I should theoretically* be able to get a pair of organic-cotton jeans and that HOT gossip girl dress, with enough change to order some more merrican apparel gear, and have my glasses and clean teeth too. I like those numbers much better.

* I say theoretically because I will not actually buy those jeans and that dress... 'cause kids are starving in Burma. But it is my prerogative to decide how I want to spead my money. Which may mean donating it to charity or saving for a home-loan deposit. Not paying it to some health insurance goon.

The Quest

Looks like my coffee addiction has returned. I think I picked it up while thesising last year, but after the glorious condensed-milk coffees I downed like water in Vietnam, nothing else was palatable. While it's not fair to judge countries like Cambodia on their lack of coffee-brewing and growing prowess considering they still haven't properly recovered from the 20th century's other genocide, I just took that as an opportunity to be healthy and try to kick the dirty habit.

I'd been drinking various white, red and green teas for a while after I got back, but really needed something stronger and tried to be satisfied with Clipper organic Indian Chai. 'Tis delicious and warming and soothing, but I dunno. I was still falling asleep.

So, despite knowing that coffee is bad for you, and that none of the CBD places seem to use fair trade beans, I kept sneaking into Rosso Espresso on my way up from the SCt carpark to grab a skinny mocha with two on the way to work.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. So freaking good. There is a line out the door and onto the footpath every morning at that place, even when it is raining, for a REASON.

Best. Coffee. In. Perth.

Or is it?

I decided that I should shop around to see if I could find better since they're not fair trade (yes, I'm a hippy), kinda pricey, and yeah, the fricking line.

This survey is extremely under-researched, just saying what I happen to see in relation to everything but what the mocha tastes like.

So.

This morning's sample was from jango in King Street. They sell fair trade chocolate and all their food packaging is recycled-looking cardboard or recyclable plastic, and they have cool juices and drinks and stuff, and they take EFTPOS, but the mocha? Bah-bow. (Think Bert's Family Feud, here, people. Survey's not happy.) Bitter, totally not sweet enough, and the large is way too small.

Next.

wait. he said WHAT?

I feel like the mother from Home Alone.

KEVIN??????????!!!!!!!

Last week heralded the announcement of a raft of legislative amendments to remove discrimination against same-sex couples in areas such as super, tax and medicare. Hurrah, we cheered, accepting that this important step towards equality for all Australians was important in its practical, real-life applications even though the who 'gay marriage' thing is still a hot tamale.

But did Rev Kev really tell the ACT they are are NOT allowed to legislate for civil union ceremonies yesterday? Wait, he actually, seriously, honestly "warned the ACT government [he] would use Commonwealth powers to scuttle any laws to introduce civil partnerships in Canberra on the grounds it would too closely mimic marriage"?

WTF, Kevin? W. T. F?

Apparently the ACT is allowed to have a 'relationship register', which means the unions are legally recognised, but, apparently, letting same-sex couples gather in front their families and friends to commit themselves to each other is the gateway drug to ruining the moral fibre of society ergo must be outlawed.

W. T. F?

Not only is this completely hypocritical considering

1. they're "removing discriminatory laws" one week but overturning other laws aimed at removing discrimination the next;


2. they're using the same power from s35 of the ACT Self Government Act 1998 (Cth) Howard used in 2006 to effectively ban "gay marriage", to which the ALP was vehemently opposed;


3. last year KRudd expressly said that in relation to civil unions, "state and territory governments are elected to govern and are accountable to their constituencies. The ACT Government’s indicated it wishes to head in a particular direction and the ACT Government is therefore in a position to be accountable to its citizenry for that." [link] [another],

it's ab-sa-fricking-lutley crap. Did I mention it is hypocritical? Fark.

Shame, Kevin, shame.

He has clearly been ignoring this Facebook group:

shelter

When I arrived at work this morning there was a fellow who looked 70+ sipping his soup patrol tea as he was shuffling though the Supreme Court Gardens. He only had shorts on so he'd pulled up a pair of footy socks to try and keep his legs warm. It was so sad to think that somebody's grandfather slept out in the cold last night.

Realestate.com.au and Mission Australia launched their House for the Homeless campaign yesterday. $1 will be donated for various Mission Australia projects for every person who visits, up to $100,000.

Every dollar counts, sure, but I don't know how far $100k goes in the current real estate market??? A 6th of a house???

The Youth Affairs Council of WA is also running a campaign to highlight the problem with a "postcard petition" aimed at Premier Carpenter.

After seeing so much homelessness on my recent trip to South-East Asia, it's even more humbling to see it in my home town.

Image: YACWA