Hi in case I can’t get to this, one issue I have is the completely unrealistic amount of the scheduled fee on Medicare for procedures which is important in terms of amounts you get back from Medicare and your private health fund for surgery in the private system.
I am in a private health fund which covered 100 percent of my accommodation costs in a private hospital for my mastectomy and DIEP reconstruction but I had huge out of pocket expenses mainly as the Medicare schedule fee was so ridiculously low for the various Doctors and their procedures ( including the anaesthetist) .
I wrote to my local Federal MP who is part of the current ruling party and he said among other things “ you could have had your surgery in the public hospital system for free “.
Apart from the fact that if all private patients had their surgery in the public system it would not be able to cope, this didn’t address the fact that the Medicare schedule fee for breast cancer surgery is completely inadequate having regard to the real cost of a competent surgeon running a practice.
