Working Hard To Make A Livin’ November 20, 2009

I’m going to write this post, before I add the title, because if I keep making my titles about how long its been between posts, that will get old. As will starting every post with, “Sorry its been so long.” In actual fact, I’m NOT sorry it has been so long. I have been a lazy sod and have no excuses, nor apologies. I’d like to say its because I’ve been living such a full life outside of the internet that I’ve just neglected to write. But sadly life has just been busy, not full. I know I know, I have probably preached on here before about how I hate when people say they’re too busy to call or keep in touch. But this time its actually kind of true!

I have started working about 20 hours a week at a golf shop, add on top of that being a mum, wife, student (though I can’t start playing THAT card yet because class finished before my job started!)…needless to say I’ve been a bit run off my feet.

This job is essentially retail. I have never done retail in my LIFE and to that fact, I have never had a job where you’ve had to be on your feet all day. So the first week was a real shocker for my feet, legs, back etc. There have literally been days where I have come home from work, eaten dinner, and gone to bed by about 8 pm. During my second week on the job, I got SICK so the two days I did have off, I spent in bed or on the couch, with a stomach bug. Given that my second week of work JUST ended, I’m still not out of the woods. I haven’t eaten a proper meal in over 5 days. I have no appetite at all, and because of that, no energy.

Its not that I don’t have anything to gripe about, or anything to talk about. I’m sure I could find something (most recently I’ve been up in arms over government spending and THE COST OF BLOODY INSURANCE), but I just haven’t had the energy or the will to sit here, and write.

And sometimes I don’t want to whine about everything that irritates me. Because you know what? Lately that is a lot. Everything irritates the shit out of me. But I think I’ll leave that for another day.

That said, I had a great day today with my son. We played at the playground this morning, went for a swim this afternoon, and I feel like I can honestly say I had a lot of good moments with him today. I wasn’t frustrated at him ALL day like I have been recently. He is almost 17 months, so close enough to 2 that he thinks he can start pulling the “Terrible 2s” attitude with me. He throws things, hits things (and people!) and doesn’t listen. He has no idea what “no” means, or strike that, he knows what it means, but he doesn’t believe in it. Its been very trying. But he is doing well at childcare, so that is something I guess. I’m just not sure what. Will let you know when I figure it out.

So Irritated!!! November 1, 2009

O.M.F.G. I am so irritated right now.

This could get complicated, so try to stay with me. Australia has a public health system, I’m sure I’ve talked about it before. But there is also a private option, of which we have bought into. We pay about $210 a month for hospital and extras cover for the 3 of us (extras being dental, vision, chiro, etc).

We have been with them for over a year now, so we don’t have any waiting periods or anything for any of the services. However, when we had our son, we hadn’t been with them for 12 months, so were not eligible for maternity. Which meant we had Nicklas at the public hospital, not the private. It also meant that I saw a GP during my pregnancy, not an OB.

So here’s how it currently works to “go private” for maternity. You get pregnant, you start seeing an OB who charges whatever they want per visit. For arguments sake, we’ll say $100 per visit. MEDICARE (the public health sector) gives you a refund on part of that, say approximately $70. So you are $30 out of pocket for your visit. Your private health fund gives you NOTHING. $0. So then your OB says, “Oh, by the way, I have a $3000 pregnancy maintenance program fee, as well as a $1500 delivery fee.” Of this, Medicare currently refunds 80% of your out-of-pocket expenses. Again, for arguments sake, you’re out of pocket say $900 for those fees. Then you get admitted to hospital to deliver the baby, and PRIVATE healthcare finally kicks in. In our case, I think we have a $500 deductible that we’d pay and the rest is covered. So not too bad $1400, + OB visits to have your baby in a private hospital and have continued care from the same OB throughout your pregnancy and recovery.

Starting January 1 of 2010, the Medicare rebate will be capped at $300 for OB fees. Meaning instead of paying $1400 to have your baby, you’ll be paying $4700, PLUS whatever you pay for your OB visits during your pregnancy.

Why does this irritate me? I was hoping to have our next bub in the private system. But WHY would I pay all that money, when I can “go public” and not pay a CENT, other than my copay for my GP visits?

To top it off, public hospitals are already delivering TWICE the number of babies they are equipped to handle in a year. This is just going to put even more strain on the already-flailing public healthcare system. I’m sure I’m not the ONLY woman who would have had her next bub in the private hospital, but will now most likely have it in the public one.

I’m not sure who is behind this change, but given that Medicare is the government-funded health scheme, I’d assume its them. While I’d love to blame this on our Prime Minister, or on his party, or on all the MALE politicians, I’m fairly certain the minister for health is a woman. Our Deputy PM is a woman. There are plenty of front and back benchers who are women. HOW does something like this get approved!?  Who gave thought to the consequences of this action? I can only assume NO ONE did, or else surely it wouldn’t have been passed.

Those figures I gave for costs are really just for arguments sake. I don’t have the first clue how much OBs charge for visits or maternity programs or delivery fees, etc. What I do know is that I’m REALLY PO’d that we have private healthcare but it doesn’t seem to cover shit.

Perhaps that is the real problem? Perhaps this is a private healthcare argument. Maybe OB/GYNs need to be covered under “extras” in pivate healthcare options. Of course that would probably just drive our premiums up higher than their already-over-inflated costs.

I’m not even pregnant, but man, as someone who may be pregnant again one day, this really [expletive] irritates me.