Description
This article is from the soc.culture.australian FAQ, by Stephen Wales
with numerous contributions by others.
8.7.5 Public Hospitals
The Australian hospital system has two sectors, the first is public
and is run by the State governments, the second is private (see
below). The public system treats the whole range of conditions
including trauma and serious, (unlike the private system).
Funding for public hospitals is provided by State Governments.
Some public hospitals run private "annexes" for services such as
maternity. These are profit making enterprises attached to the larger
public hospital.
From the patients point of view, you can attend a public hospital in one
of four ways:
- Outpatient
- Public ward Generally about 8 beds to a ward
- Intermediate ward Between 4 and 6 beds to a ward
- Private ward Generally 2 beds to a ward, but sometimes only 1.
(Private insurance is required for treatment in an Intermediate or
Private ward.)
Patients are generally treated by registrars and salaried doctors in
the public system, however, many private practitioners serve for several
hours a week in public hospitals. (For this work, they are paid
according to the Schedule Fee, so there is usually no financial loss.
However, some good specialists who are generally able to charge in
excess of the Schedule Fee *do* end up losing somewhat.)
There is an important issue concerning private health insurance and
emergency hospital admission. If you are admitted to a public hospital
in an emergency and have private health insurance, you will be
admitted as a private patient and end up with a surprising bill. It
happens because, the so-called "public" patient is bulk-billed and
therefore accrues debts at 85% of the Schedule Fee. Since Medicare
covers all of this, there is nothing left to pay. However, "private"
patients are charged 100% of the Schedule Fee, but private insurance
typically only matches medicare by providing 85% coverage. The
patient pays the balance. [JM]
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