inronically…

So remember how I was having a whinge about ((whoa I just had a MASSIVE flash of deja vu. crazy. anyhoo)) health insurance and how it was like all a rip-off and that they should get their shit together to keep their customers after the budget changes?

Well.

Yesterday I opened my mail to find that my health insurance company had sent me a $50 Coles-Myer Giftcard.

Heh heh heh heh!!

But unless they send me one of those a month, I’m still bailing come 1 July.  They can’t buy me with fifty bucks. Hello.

Also, this morning I followed Grendel‘s advice and ordered a flat white to really get a feel for Ristretto‘s current roast. Mmmmmmm! I know I was on the hunt for the perfect mocha, but I had one yesterday at Velvet and it was soooo sweet I wondered if it was just me… have I grown up enough to appreciate real coffee and not need added chocolate?  Shit. Tomorrow I’ll probably wake up and realise I need to move on to Olay Regenerist.

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 spend my money. Which may mean donating it to charity or saving for a home-loan deposit. Not paying it to some health insurance goon.