{"id":257047,"date":"2020-04-22T15:55:41","date_gmt":"2020-04-22T05:55:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?p=257047"},"modified":"2020-04-22T15:58:00","modified_gmt":"2020-04-22T05:58:00","slug":"life-or-death-begins-at-60","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2020\/04\/22\/life-or-death-begins-at-60\/","title":{"rendered":"Life (Or Death) Begins At 60"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-77900\" src=\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/editorial-d.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"210\" height=\"350\" srcset=\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/editorial-d.jpg 210w, https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/editorial-d-180x300.jpg 180w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 210px) 100vw, 210px\" \/><strong>April 22, 2020<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>by Anne Miller<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>There&#8217;s been a lot of spruiking and boasting from the Federal Government about the new telehealth services being offered during the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n<p>The aim is to keep people away from crowded surgery waiting rooms where they could be exposed to all sorts of germs &#8230;<\/p>\n<p>If you believed the publicity, getting a prescription renewed would be as simple as logging on to your iPad or making a telephone call.<\/p>\n<p>But no.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The new temporary, bulk-billed Medicare Benefits Schedule\u00a0telehealth items are only available to some patients:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Commonwealth concession\u00a0card holders<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Children under 16, and<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Patients &#8220;who are more vulnerable to COVID-19&#8221;.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&#8220;Vulnerable&#8221; is the key word here. It is carefully defined and means:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A person required to\u00a0self-isolate or self-quarantine (makes sense &#8211; you&#8217;ll be fined or maybe jailed if you break quarantine); or<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Is at least 70 years old; or<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>A person identifying as being of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander descent and at least 50 years old; or<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Pregnant; or<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>The parent of a child aged under 12 months; or<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Is being treated for a chronic health condition; or<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Is immune compromised; or<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Meets the current national triage protocol criteria for suspected COVID-19 infection.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>A chronic health condition is medical condition that has been present (or is likely to be present) for at least six months\u00a0or is terminal.<\/p>\n<p>The rest of us? Crickets &#8230;<\/p>\n<p><strong>It doesn&#8217;t matter that you don&#8217;t want to get sick yourself, or expose yourself to a disease which you could pass on to someone who IS vulnerable.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Some economists (and quite a few social media commentators) have been expressing the view the cost of social isolation is too great.<\/p>\n<p>They have been suggesting &#8211; in as many words &#8211; that people aged 60-plus could be sacrificed on the altar of the economy to allow younger folk to get on with their lives.<\/p>\n<p>As an over-60s citizen that fits into none of the above categories, I&#8217;m feeling very expendable at the moment.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/editorial\/\">Read more Editorial columns<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There&#8217;s been a lot of spruiking and boasting from the Federal Government about the new telehealth services being offered during the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":77903,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[598],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v19.11 - 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