AndyProutchkine

Good day.

Firstly, excuse me for creating another OT thread. Hope i'll not get burnt :o

What i am asking of you, good LLaMas is how is it in your country with:
- free-of-charge and paid medecine;
- same for basic education;
- same for higher education,

and your opinion - is it overrated or underrated.

Huge thanks in advance and waiting for replies

kovalenkov

Some medicines are free of charge if you have doctors perscription. If not, every medicine must be paied for.

Every education is free here in Slovenia. The only thing that parents or you as a student must take care of are school/college necessaries. I hear that can come up as high as 400 EUR per year.

Of course if you want to live on campus, you have to have good conections or reside outside Ljubljana (and with outside I don't mean subrbia or something. And campuses must be payed for. They have different prices, but you are squeezed into 4 by 4 room with another person. They are furnitured, all you have to do is bring your gadgets. They are quite cheap since most of expenses are covered by student organization.

What I think of it? Well it is hard to be a socialist and then capitalist country. Why? You get spiled in socialist regime. specially as it was over here (not talking about Stalin and others atm). Before 1990 all medicines were free with perscription and some even without one. Education was free with subventions, which means that costs per houssehold were somwhere around 100 EUR and not 400 as it is now.
Other than that, teachers were better, had higher jurisdiction, which is definately missed now.
Health departements are almost broke, since they get fewer money. You know that Ljubljana with 300000 population has only two major hospitals :eek:? It is absurd.

Other than that, I am pretty satisfied with the way things are organized over here.

Taipan

Hey Andy...Here in Aussie, you have to pay for any medicines, although you get a rebate from the Government which is roughly 50%, dependent on the item concerned. Some have higher rebates, others lower. If you have to stay in Hospital it is free, and so is any medicines used while in hospital.

Education from the age of 6 to 17 is free. although any books required are at the parents expense

We have a wonderfull thing called HEX (Higher Education Tax). When you get your degree, and go to work, you will be charged a higher rate of tax, and so pay back to the Government the cost of your education. Basic 4 year degree about 25k, going up to 70-100k for people who end up doctors for example. You only start getting charged this tax when your rate of pay exceeds a certain amount. Again, books are at your expense.

Overated/Underrated?...Haven't really thought about it tbh. HEX is wrong, but you can't do a damn thing about it.

AndyProutchkine

Kov, Taipan - :thup:

Thanks for your time. Waiting for other altruistic LLaMas.

Cosmo-poof

I guess I'm going to cover both Germany and Austria about these topics:

Germany
Basic medicines (like against a cough or allergic reaction) have to be paid fully. Other medicines need prescriptions. In that case you have to cover 10% of the medicine cost, at least 5, at max 10 Euro. There's no medicine free of charge.

Basic education is free, although you have to pay for books and other material.

Higher education is costly. Some universities already take fees (up to maybe 1000 Euro a month), and even state universities take some money. Called mainly administrative fees and whatever, but when you're poor, even that is hard to pay for. If you've already studied once (no matter if you have a degree or not) you have to pay fees everywhere, even at state universities. Poor people may apply for government subsidies so they can pay for a small apartement and food during their studies, but half the money has to be paid back (5 years after you leave uni), including interest rates.

Austria
Every medicine can be prescribed. Then they cost a certain fee (last time I checked it was 3 Euro) each. Some medicines can be purchased without prescription, then you have to pay the full price.

Basic education is free. You have to pay part of the cost for books, although the cost can be reduced by taking part of a used-book-program. That means, that you get books from the last year and you have to give them back again at the end of the year, in a good state. So don't write or smear into them! ;-)

Higher education is divided into private and state universities. State demands from students a basic fee regardless of university (about 350 Euro per term), but universities can decide to pay for their students. I myself attended a private university and did not have to pay fees because the university did for me.

Like in Germany, there are subsidies for poor people. You don't have to pay them back though, unless you failed in every aspect (mainly when you take the money without really putting the effort in). So, every term you have to succeed at least in 50% of your courses and show proof if you want to keep the money you got.

AndyProutchkine

:thup:

QA add-on (due to my creepy English):

- free-of-charge and paid medical treatment.

Again - great thanks to kov, Taipan and multi-cultural poof for your time.

Cosmo-poof

in Germany, you need to have health insurance. It's very costly, although unemployed people or people getting social aid are insured through the state. Still, there are lots of people without insurance, mainly working people who aren't employed but work on a day-by-day base. They usually just don't earn enough money to pay for insurance. :eek:

Otherwise, basic medical treatment is mainly covered by your insurance. You have to pay 10 Euro every 3 months though, when you go to a doc. That stupid rule was introduced to keep people from walking from specialist to specialist until they find something they "like". Good idea, stupid execution, imho.

Spceficic wishes (Physiotherapy, Ergotherapy, anything out of the ordinary) aren't covered by insurances though.

Generally, German health system is corrupt and almost bankrupt. Insurance companies don't have to care about making a profit anyway, since law rules that companies have to give away their profits anyway (to the AOK, the insurance that covers the unemployed and social cases).

kovalenkov

YOu need to have health insurance here to. But it is very cheap: about 30 EUR/month for basic and additional insurance.

Cosmo-poof

I pay around 350 EUR/month.

kovalenkov

I didn't include contributions from our salary. This is only obligatory for working persons though, as unemployed and students are payed by the government.
From my gross salaray, 22,5% is cut away for so called contributions. That is before the VAT is calculated. This contributions consist of:
- social care (0,2% of gross salary)
- preganancy bonus (0,3%)
- pension & disability insurance (15,5%)
- health insurance (6,5%).