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Some more details about Medicare (ie a brain dump of what I know about the cost of health care in Australia and how to access Medicare):It started in the early 1970s as Medibank, and morphed into Medicare, with the spin-off government-owned private insurer Medibank Private. To confuse things further, Medibank Private has now been sold to the public and has changed its name.Every household was issued a Medicare card with all family members listed on it. As children grow up and earn their own income, they must apply for their own card. Immigrants and people who apply for permanent residency need to apply for their own card, the form is available online.Hospital care for emergencies is completely covered by Medicare in a public hospital (most large hospitals are owned and run by the government, but there are a small number of public-private partnership hospitals, which treat public patients under Medicare), unless you choose to be admitted as a private patient, perhaps because you wish to be treated by a specific doctor. This is very unlikely, since only a handful of private hospitals have an emergency department, and most people have no particular preference for a doctor other than the nearest one when it is an emergency.All medical procedures are set as having a “scheduled fee” by the government. This is supposed to be the basic amount that the procedure should cost. These prices are usually updated every year, although some governments have cut costs by freezing the rates for a year. The scheduled fee for a general practitioner (GP) short consultation is around AUD$41.If you want to see a doctor, you must first see a GP, who will refer you to a specialist doctor if you need one. In one sense they are the gatekeepers to specialists, but this means you get treatment by appropriate specialist, unlike one Quoran who was incorrectly treated by a specialist in the wrong field. The GP may choose to “bulk bill” your fee, which means you pay nothing and Medicare pays the GP the entire $41 scheduled fee. This means the doctor has lots of business, very little paperwork and no bad debts. The doctor may not bulk bill, and will charge you directly. For me, this might be about $70, but Medicare will refund me 85% of the scheduled fee direct to my bank account, so the net cost to me is about half of what the doctor receives. My doctor bulk bills on weekdays and does not on weekends. Some medical centres always bulk bill. Some doctors, particularly in regional areas where there is little choice, never bulk bill. To receive the Medicare rebate, I just proffer my Medicare card to the receptionist, who verifies the number.Specialist doctors charge a great deal more than GPs (it’s been a long time, but I estimate $200-$300 for a consultation), and the gap between the scheduled fee and the actual charged fee is greater. I don't think I have ever heard of a specialist that bulk bills their services outside a public hospital.Non-emergency hospital care is where things get less smoothly treated, as with the UK and Canadian systems. You are put on a waiting list for surgery at a public hospital, and it depends on local demand as to how long you wait. In some extreme situations it may be as much as two years for a hip replacement (and that generally is rare enough to be considered newsworthy), but may be only a couple of months. A big annoyance may be being scheduled for surgery on a day, then not being treated because an emergency took your place on the list for the day, and having to wait again. It's a bit like being waitlisted for staff travel on an airline, but more life-critical.If you don't want to wait for non-emergency treatment, you would need to have purchased private hospital insurance. This insurance generally has a waiting period for certain types of coverage, up to no more than a year (any waiting periods are waived if you transfer from one insurer to another, having already served the appropriate waiting period). Once you are covered, it usually is a wait of no more than a month or so for your surgeon to have time to treat you. Before your treatment, your doctor will provide you with an estimate of the total cost of your treatment, and also how much your insurance should cover of that bill (presuming no complications). Importantly, private insurance is limited by law in how much it may reimburse you. It may pay no more than the scheduled fee. Any excess that your clinicians may charge is called the Gap, and you must pay that. I note that some are accepting reductions of their fee by negotiation, which is counter to the intent of the system, since it advantages people who are better negotiators (Australians don't often negotiate prices unless buying a car), rather than those least able to pay. By forcing patients to pay the Gap, clinicians must keep their prices reasonable or at least justifiable, since people have the alternative of being treated for free in the public system if they are prepared to wait a bit. Some insurance grades will cover your treatment as a private patient in a public hospital, with your preferred doctor, with a zero gap - but only if your doctor practices in a public hospital (many don't).X-rays, CAT, PET and MRI scans may be done at a public hospital, but most GPs think the wait will be too long and generally will refer you to a private diagnostic service. This is not always true, and is worth investigating whether any delay will apply at a public hospital, since such services are free on Medicare.Pharmaceuticals are covered by the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS), which negotiates the price to buy medications and how much to subsidise them, if at all. Once scheduled, PBS medications are available at quite a reasonable cost, even fairly new cancer treatments which might cost $5,000/month unsubsidised. If a medication is still under development, it is generally not subsidised until it has a proven track record. For a pensioner, the cost of a PBS medication is usually about $5, with an annual out-of-pocket cap around $1500. For others, it may be around $5-$30 per script.Medicare also covers about $1,000 of dental fees per year for children whose parents receive certain common tax allowances such as the Family Tax Benefit. It is not well advertised, though, and many people are not aware of it even though they are eligible.Medicare covers one free eye examination each year.There are two main types of medical insurance, Hospital and Extras. Hospital cover is described above, Extras covers doctor visits, pharmaceuticals, optical, dental and physiotherapy etc. A basic Hospital cover for an individual under 65 may cost about $1,200 per year, a premium cover with minimum excess would be around $3,000 per year (less if your income is lower than $140k - there is a government rebate which may subsidise private insurance). Extras cover is up to about $1,000/year. Some insurers have their own optical and dental clinics, so if you have Extras cover, you can use their clinics for free. Older people probably need a higher level of cover if they want private hospital cover, which will mean less of a Gap when being treated. Orthodontics doesn't get very good cover on even the best policy, a set of braces (start to finish, everything included) may cost around $7,000, with at most only about $2,000 claimable.In order to encourage people to get hospital insurance at a younger age, the government has mandated that, for every year between the age of 30 and 60 that someone has not been covered by Hospital insurance, 2% is added to their premium (cost of the insurance), called “Lifetime Health Cover Loading”. I am not aware of any employers who provide health insurance for their employees - it would not make any sense, given the variables that affect the cost.Paying for this all is the Medicare Levy which is a flat 2% tax on your net income if it exceeds $21,655, plus a surcharge of up to 1.5% if your income is over $90k (double that and more for a family) and you don't have decent private Hospital insurance.

At least some species do.Parrots, certainly. Pet parrots bond closely with their preferred human and will often exhibit jealousy when that person is close to another human, or pine if their person leaves or dies.It is also well known that the Australian magpie recognises faces. Some males of the species are known to attack people who stray too close to their nest during breeding season. This attack is in the form of dive-bombing people, or "swooping". People can lose an eye. There is even an online register of attacking magpies (not all the males do it). But the way to ensure your local magpie will not attack you is to feed him, he will not attack the person who feeds or befriends him. One family not far from me befriended a juvenile magpie; he visited them daily over a period of many months and became very close. He helped their recovery after major trauma; the story is now a book and I understand a movie may be filmed. He was given the name of Penguin, due to his smart black-and-white plumage.

There are several zoos in and around Sydney, but the best known and oldest is Taronga Zoo at Mosman.I have been there twice in the last two years, they have an online deal for $1 entry on your birthday, and at other times online ticket purchase is also discounted from the normal $47/day entry fee. I have also visited Berlin Zoo and a large animal zoo, for comparison. If possible and you are arriving by car, find parking in the neighbouring streets as the car park at the zoo is expensive (the local residents clearly would be unhappy with that, so try to arrive by public transport - a ferry terminal adjoins the bottom entrance).It's just a great zoo. Close to the city, well laid out on the hillside, marvellous harbour views if you needed that, well-designed enclosures and satisfied animals. The zoo is involved in the attempt to rescue the Tasmanian devil from the facial cancer epidemic, and any other vulnerable species are involved in carefully curated breeding programs designed to minimise inbreeding. You don't see any animals looking stressed and pacing, or bored. They have cover and can relax, even though the enclosures are designed to give you good vantage points.Highlights for me:Sumatran tigers - see them first thing in the morning when they are let out. There is a mother with three half-grown cubs right now, lots of interactions, including mumma tiger growling at the watchers and spraying, warning them off her cubs (the glass allows her to see the people).Platypus tank - the zoo bred them only a couple of years ago, these are extremely shy and very rarely breed in captivity, which shows they must be fairly happy.Free flight bird show - two or three a day, each slightly different. Not a place for trained birds, all the displays demonstrate the natural behaviours of the animals, usually a mixture of eagles, owls and parrots. Occasionally the local wild birds will interact with it.The walk through aviaries - get up close and personal with some of the more colourful native birds. The zoo is breeding endangered regent honeyeaters for release into the wild, part of a much bigger interstate program,The corroboree frogs - tiny and spectacular with their black and yellow painted markings, they are extremely threatened in the wild due to the chytrid fungus. The zoo's breeding program hopes to restock the alpine creeks they came from. A recent discovery found the fungus is averse to slightly acidic water, something which does not bother the frogs.The nocturnal animals - light levels in these enclosures are manipulated so these animals are active during opening hours, giving you a fair chance of seeing them in their usual activities.Obviously, tourists will tend to head first for the Australian native animals - the koalas, kangaroos, wallabies and emus, but there is a lot packed into the site. You won't see many large animals, though there are asiatic elephants and giraffes, because those are given expansive enclosures in Taronga's sister zoo at Dubbo, where they can roam. There are no giant pandas - but the red pandas have new cubs (and IMHO are much more charming).I know that many spurn zoos as exploiting these animals, but it is clear to me that the animals at Taronga are cared for to the highest standard, and are often part of critical efforts, some international, to prevent species going into extinction. The zoo also provides hospital facilities for injured native wildlife, rehabilitating echidnas, penguins, parrots and turtles etc, then releasing them back into the wild.Enjoy![Edit - corrected tiger -> devil]