A piercing pain ripping through the lower right side of your abdomen..... It hurts to be still. It hurts more when you move. Each laboured breath is a paradox. If you breathe it hurts. If you don't, you suffocate a slow death. Calling upon ancestral spirits to give you strength, you muster enough effort to crawl to the car and in the midst of a blow out fever, tight purse strings, you have to make a decision.....
a) Save the money and go to a govt hospital.....where you know you have to endure the long wait while resisting the temptation to just jump out the window to end this misery
OR
b) Splurge the money and eat bread and canned sardines for the next 2 years but get prompt treatment at the nearest private hospital....
*ohhhh if only you had listened to me and get yourself some idiotic insurance then it would have been a one horse race.....
Difference between (a) and (b)?
(a) = $250.00 for an appendicectomy (assuming you're right) PLUS hospital stay & meds.
(b) = $3000.00 just for the appendicectomy (they will convince you're right) MINUS hospitalisation and meds.
The verdict.....you are at least $2750 poorer but you get to play buddies with Dr House for your own diagnosis and treatment. Some may consider it a chance of a lifetime....But who's judging yeah?
..........................alternate world..................................
Imagine you went to the private hospital. The op was done. You stayed 5 days eating steak and roasted vegetables (you better coz sardines and bread is coming for 2 years), and upon checking out (in private it is not called "discharge", coz you're paying beyond hotel prices anyway), so upon checking out.....you see the bill.....and it reads...
Operation charges. $3000
Doctor's fee. $1000
Hospitalisation (5 days). $1500
Medication. $ 500
Misc. $ 500
Subtotal. $6500
Govt subsidy. $3000
Grandtotal (you pay). $3500
WAITAMINUTE........what's this Govt subsidy??? I could use some of it.....
Since when did govt pay for private treatment??
..........................real world..................................
That ladies and gentlemen is the hopes of a REAL national health reform.
In the course of reducing the work burden and subsequent complaints of efficiency (and of course to garner more political votes....) the govt is looking into the possibility of reforming the national health service under the 1care initiative.
Of course if not done right, it will always receive the usual flak as how the other projects have been. Most people will think its a waste of time, and many in the private sector will feel threatened by such an initiative. Problem is, the govt rely on idiots to talk to the media. And the media are a bunch of idiots who find it hard to interpret medical jargon into useful lay person information.
The structure of the plan is as such
1. At present the people get cheap and subsidised treatment at all govt facilities. A person with cough and cold pays $1 for treatment and meds worth $35 in a private clinic. A person may pay up to a max $300 for surgical fees which has no proper cap in the private sector. Eg appendicectomy in private being $3000 for surgical fees.
2 . With the new health system, the people have an option to get treated in private centers with certain conditions and the govt will subsidise it.
3 . People will get to register with 1 private clinic of their choice and inform the govt the facility. From then on they can get outpatient treatment without paying or paying only $1 as how they would have been in the govt clinic or hospital. The remainder $34 is reimbursed to the private clinic by the govt.
4 . The basis is the govt will pay for the same value. If it is more then the patient will have to pay the difference.
5 . Eg like the appendicitis case above. Before subsidy the person has to pay $6500, after a govt subsidy of $3000 ( for the value of the operation), the person just pays $3500, but they get the comfort of private hospital treatment.
6 . Basically it is to decentralise the work to primary healthcare providers and giving them more business in a way because people have a choice to go to the clinic down the road and not brave the journey and wait in a govt facility.
Of course this is just a framework bounced off my head. But won't it be nice if the "myth" of a National Health Reform was debunked in such a manner (after ironing out the finer details)
*Disclaimer. Please do not quote me for the above reform. If it happens, thank me for giving you a preview. If it doesn't happen, at least for a moment you believed it was a good idea......
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