mothra wrote on Mar 26^th, 2016 at 11:59pm:



You could take the same advice - since you are so totally wrong in your interpretation of what I said and have struggled mightily to draw my comments into some mythical war between men and women...

I was discussing the size of brain and potential intraneural connections and how they can manifest across the board, and how brain size had little to nothing to do with intelligence - not your silly ideology.

'feminists' said that women were smarter etc due to 'emotional intelligence' - a manifestation of intraneural connections - but their stated position has NO solid basis at all..... I merely added that the potential for a huge number of Intraneural Connections did not NECESSARILY imply some intellectual superiority.. but could ALSO include total delusion due to 'garbage in - garbage out'.

You just cannot follow the discussion and have failed Medical Psychology 101....

Go study 'psychology' at uni.... if they even give you one semester of Brain Function you will be lucky...

But for the True Believer in some a4rcane mythology of oppression... there is ZERO possibility that you will see there is a vast difference between the ability to make connections and the ability to make VALID connections.

I thought Setanta would understand the difference... I was wrong....

Setanta - you may come back into this whenever you like... you are at about 40% of what I once thought of you... but I have no problem dealing with your arguments....

You, like Mothra, have failed Medical Psychology 101..... get in touch with the FACTS.

I'm now for bed.

Medicare incentives cuts to add cost to diagnostic imaging   
25th Mar 2016
Queensland Times

PATIENTS without a concession card will fork out up to $150 for medical imaging that is currently free once budget cuts to Medicare bulk-billing incentives come into effect in July.   

The warning has come from SouthernX Radiology management and Blair MP Shayne Neumann, who met on Thursday over SouthernX's concerns for patient costs.

At one of the two SouthernX clinics in Ipswich, an average 35 patients a day use the MRI machine. It was installed only six months ago is the only Medicare-funded MRI machine in the region.

The majority of patients who use it or the clinic's other machines don't pay anything for the procedure thanks to the funding the providers get from the Federal Government.

But that funding is due to be cut from July 1 as incentives paid to providers change drastically.   

Incentives for general diagnostic imaging will now only be paid for patients on a concession card or under the age of 16. The incentive for MRI procedures done on funded machines will also be reduced by 5%.

Diagnostic imaging and pathology testing are the two services that will absorb the most cuts, and SouthernX Radiology Queensland general manager Bronwyn Nicholson said the gap would have to be passed on to patients.

The two Ipswich clinics treat more than 250 patients a day and perform up to 300 procedures.

Mr Neumann said the reduction in incentives for many of those procedures would push up the cost of health care long-term as patients were pushed back into the public system.

He said the budget cuts would heavily affect the low socio-economic seat of Blair and would stop people from accessing tests or imaging.

He said figures put forward by the Australian Diagnostic Imaging Association predicted patients would be worse off by $62-$173 per procedure.   

Ms Nicholson said the gaps SouthernX has already had to introduce on procedures where Medicare incentives don't cover the cost were anywhere from $50-150.

"Most of them fall around $100," she said.

"Patients have said they can't afford it."   

Ms Nicholson said unlike pathology, diagnostic imaging costs came from the need for highly qualified staff to work one-on-one with patients. She said an ultrasound, which takes about half an hour to perform and requires a staff member with a post-graduate degree, received $85 from the government per procedure.

"It's already hard enough for us to do that without charging gaps," she said.

The budget cuts are yet to be finalised after they were introduced at the Federal Government's Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook.
Ipswich Queensland Times 

I won the lottery last week so decided to get a new home for the homeless guy who lives near my street. It was the box from my new 70″ Plasma TV.

aquascoot wrote on Mar 28^th, 2016 at 6:53pm:



ahh, finally trickle down is working

Andrei.Hicks wrote on Mar 28^th, 2016 at 7:47pm:



A rather flippant comment there, Mr Hicks.... are you related to Brigadier Hicks of the 1 ALB?

Andrei.Hicks wrote on Mar 28^th, 2016 at 7:46pm:


and yet taxes are genrally higher under the libs 

John Smith wrote on Mar 28^th, 2016 at 7:59pm:





Here, in order, are the highest tax to GDP ratios that have been recorded. Here are the Top 10.

RANK   LEVEL    YEAR     PRIME MINISTER

1.       24.2%   2004-05    HOWARD
2.       24.2%   2005-06    HOWARD
3.       24.1%   2000-01    HOWARD
4.       24.0%   2002-03    HOWARD
5.       23.9%   2003-04    HOWARD
6.       23.7%   2006-07    HOWARD
7.       23.6%   2007-08    HOWARD
8.       23.2%   1986-87    HAWKE
9.       23.2%   2001-02    HOWARD
10.     23.1%   1987-88    HAWKE