Inspired by an AskUK reddit post, what is cheaper to buy in Australia than overseas?
First thing off the top of my head is our artificially stasis-locked Coles/Woolies milk prices.
Edit: Since the genuine answer in real $ is going to be.. nothing, I'll rephrase the question to what is cheaper relative to our mean/median income than in other countries?
Tim Tams
I actually saw Tim Tams at a supermarket in Japan for 298yen, which is about A$3.60 vs the non-sale price of $4 we cop here.
You can buy Tim Tams pretty regularily for $2.00 when they are on special
I'm aware, but its fairer to compare RRP to RRP.
Wow I was super surprised to hear this.
Tim Tams in Russia sells for 1100rub = 20aud.
Hmm I sense a new export opportunity…
Were they the "right" Tim Tam's though? I bought a pack of $4 Tim Tam's in Korea and they were awful. Flipped the pack over and it was "made in Indonesia". Didn't even know Indonesia made Tim Tam's….
I've never seen $4 Tim Tams here. I've also seen knock offs made in Malaysia? or Thailand? that use palm oil, and taste totally different. They end up in the Reject Shop here for 50c. Not sure which ones Japan gets for $3.60.
Health care.
Not sure why you got downvoted for this because it is quite true.
Although Medicare is being whittled away and out-of-pockets are increasing as the years wear on. Radiology is a glaringly obvious one, pretty common to pay gaps for scans, especially as you get older (there is an age cutoff for bulk billing certain scans). Currently the net expense per capita is still cheaper than many other countries. Though there are a few where there are literally no gaps for any service.
Healthcare is cheaper in the UK as there are no out of pocket expenses except for prescriptions which are pretty cheap.
Yes agreed. Shaving anything off the NHS is a political death sentence whereas with regular cuts to Medicare with minimal media coverage, I strongly believe by the time I retire, bulk billing will be a historic concept only.
Yeah but NHS is dreadful. Good luck.
@meowsers: I haven't had to use the NHS since 2004 but it was no worse and no better than Australian healthcare. The only thing that was better was knowing how much you'd be paying every time you saw a GP or specialist.
@onetwothreefour: There is not as good of an established private system in the UK. You can be guaranteed to wait hours in the ED no matter what. The pay for doctors is dreadful.
Workers are leaving in droves.
I would say that the Australian system is the perfect blend of the UK and the US style healthcare.
@MaccasAU: Disagree. The US system seems to be a corrupt shambles, but it is not all bad
In US (and Aus) you have choice of GP. You don't get that in the UK, you have to go one close to your house. UK waiting times are atrocious, I waited 9 months for an urgent referral
@Bren20: The US system is the best money can buy, if you have money it is great if don't it is rubbish. If you are stuck in the middle you are overpaying for what you need.
No experience with NHS but it certainly doesn't seem to be the disaster cover some commentators seem to paint it as.
@onetwothreefour: I work in healthcare. Half of their doctors work in our EDs. Nobody wants to work in the NHS.
We've been poaching their best talent for years.
@onetwothreefour: Being from the UK and having had to use both healthcare systems I have to say the Australian system, despite its flaws and costs, is miles ahead of the NHS. NHS is great in an emergency (no ambulance charges for a start), but for non-urgent matters I'm very glad for our system here. The wait lists are outrageous on the NHS. My father had a tumour years ago in the UK, and because it wasn't an "emergency" it would have been 4 months+ wait to have it removed. He paid to get it removed at a private hospital, which almost definitely saved his life. Knowing people who have had similar situations here they were diagnosed and treated in a fraction of the time that someone would wait in the UK, and had no out of pocket expenses.
It's a bit annoying not knowing if you're going to get a bill here or not, but I'm very glad not to have to deal with NHS waiting lists. I still have family back there and I am horrified by how long they have to wait for things.
I believe their NHS taxes are higher, and NHS is worse than Medicare
@reactor-au: Income tax rates in UK are different than here e.g. £12,571 to £50,270 = tax rate 20% (next band is @ 40%).
VAT (GST) is @ 20% for most goods and services (but different to here).
NHS costs users nothing per visit / treatment, etc.
Most users of NHS that I know are happy with the services provided in comparison to Australian services.
Most providers or workers in NHS are probably not as happy.
@reactor-au: NHS is absolutely not worse than Medicare, its significantly better and free. No rubbish gap payments or Medicare type payments that don't even cover the standard fees of most GPs etc.
I never paid a cent for healthcare when I lived in the UK. Our system here where even under Medicare you still end up paying a lot of the time, combined with being basically forced to join rip off private health funds that don't fully cover you anyway, is an absolute rort.
@Brianqpr: I have experienced both systems and I prefer Medicare. NHS is overworked and stretched to the limit. It is considerably cheaper than Medicare, but you pay for it in waiting times
UK don't do blood collections like we do in Aus, where we can go to a local pathology centre. Blood is taken at the hospital, which was 45min trip each way, even though there was another hospital right next to my workplace, they couldn't take my blood there
NHS is shit house, ask anyone from the UK who relies on it
Scans are always an interesting area. My 10 minute CT scan was more expensive before/after Medicare than my 1 hour MRI scan.
I've had multiple CT scans and MRI scans and have never been charged anything, it is always bulked billed in Sydney.
@dave999: More accurately you went to a bulk billing radiologist. That's not the case everywhere and certainly not all over Sydney. Much like GPs, allied health etc.
Either way the amount being billed to Medicare was higher for the CT scan than the MRI. One would think it's the other way around.
@dave999: MRI scans cannot be bulk billed if referred by GP. Were your MRI scans referred by a specialist?
@BuyNow Think Later: As someone who gets regular brain MRI's, I disagree.
Caveat to that - The only time it will be bulk billed is if the GP makes the referral under the "unknown but high risk" code.
Other than that, imaging centers have their own rules about how things get bulk billed.
I've had multiple CT scans and MRI scans and have never been charged anything, it is always bulked billed in Sydney.
Though a slight deviation from the main topic -> To be honest it's not enough. What's also important is how much is the govt charged for it by the scan labs. That's where I think there's massive lack of efficiency and negotiation. I have seen crazy fees being charged to the govt (on behalf of us taxpayers) for simple blood works by the path labs, which could have been negotiated better by the govt. I am sure they have a schedule of fees which has to be regularly scrutinized and re-evaluated. You can say it doesn't matter to us because we don't pay, but it matters a lot to us collectively as it can affect Medicare budget significantly.
FYI, there are still bulk billed radiology facilities where you don't pay gaps, you just need to find them. Source: My wife works for one of these bulk billing facilities.
word of caution re bulk billed radiology, depending on the radiologist the quality of report may suffer as they need to churn through more scans to make equivalent cash than their private gap colleagues.
@chongsu: I think it depends on the facility. The one my wife works at is owned by a nearby private hospital and the radiology techs that works at the bulk billed facility are the same people on rotation.
@geek001: I'm not talking about the quality of the pictures. I'm talking about the quality of the report given by the radiologist who actually analyses the pictures. That's where the quality can often drop off if at a bulk billing facility.
@chongsu: Me neither. I am not saying you are totally incorrect, I am just saying you can't generalise and say that ALL bulk billing facilities are substandard.
Intuitively, I would agree with you, but that is not the case at my wife's workplace. This is a FACT, not generalisation, not hearsay. The SAME doctors and techs works at the private hospital and the bulk bill radiology facility on rotation. That being said, there is normally a 2 to 3 weeks wait to get an appointment at the bulk bill facility because of higher demand and also not all scans can be bulk billed, only the ones covered by Medicare.
@chongsu: It also depends on who is doing the referral.
GP referred "bulk billing" center was a bit meh (reports were alright) but, the Neurologist referred center was lovely and their reports were quite good.
According to the neuro, the GP referred place had meh standard imaging anyway when I told her I got charged $700.
@chongsu: Why? They get paid by the govt and they don't charge any less to the govt, so I would assume that their overall income-stream is still intact even when they bulk-bill.
what are you referring to specifically for age cut off bulk billing?
Considering "In 2018-19, Australian men earned a median taxable income of $55,829" and the medicare levy is 1% ( 1% and increases (up to 1.5%) )
Australians are paying $5'500 in average for Basic Health cover. You could add another $5'000 for private insurance.
So it is more than arguable to say that health insurance is cheaper
~$558 is 1% of your median taxable income of $55,829, not $5500 (10%). Not sure how you can justify paying 10X ("another $5000") for private health insurance on top of that when what you get from PHI is probably not 10X better.
~$558 is 1% of your median taxable income of $55,829,
Correct. Need to Amend.
Not sure how you can justify paying 10X ("another $5000") for private health insurance on top of that when what you get from PHI is probably not 10X better.
Very probably not. But if you compare health systems, you might have to add it to compare to same level.
Probably a difference of perspective. Some people will look at their obvious out of pocket costs and agree that healthcare is cheap. The people down-voting probably disagree because they're looking at it on the basis of actual cost - either factoring in their share of taxes that go toward funding the public healthcare system, or they're thinking about having paid for something in the private system that wasn't covered by insurance - maybe both.
In this context it probably makes sense to focus out of pocket costs, since it doesn't make sense to argue that our beer or petrol is really cheap if you subtract taxes from the retail price - which is sort of the same logic.
Knee replacement 15 th July cost me $3000
Out of pocket same operation before 30th June would of been $0 very quietly slipped in
I was able to afford it but I know a few elderly patients had to delay to put money together..
One of the best things about this country, Medicare funded health care. Not having to worry about unexpected sickness and medical bills is a huge relief and weight off ones shoulders. My mother had cancer in the Philippines, it wiped out all our savings and investments. I remember the hospital invoices which were very detailed. Everything is billed, down to individual paper cups.
Can you get health cover in the Philippines? How about PhilHealth? I don't really understand how it all works there. My wife is from the Philippines and we both experienced the high costs of health care during the year I was living there.
I guess one could but it is quite pricey, and unaffordable to the majority of us Filipinos.
Not having to worry about unexpected sickness and medical bills is a huge relief and weight off ones shoulders.
As someone whose medical bills are going to total around $25k to treat a chronic condition, I'd have to disagree.
In Australia, life threatening emergencies and illnesses are treated in a timely manner. No one is turned away in the emergency department because they don’t have cash or a bank card. Sadly this is not the case in the Philippines. My uncle went into diabetic ketoacidosis and since we could not scrape together money for a deposit in time, his treatment was delayed and he died. I always feel so sad to think that due to a mix up with Western Union, the money I sent for a hospital down payment was not released until it was too late.
@Princess1226: Medical emergencies are, but that is only a small portion of severe or life threatening conditions. I'm sorry about your uncle, it's pretty awful he died from something that could've been easily cured with prudent treatment.
Depends on where you compare to, as proportion of GDP we aren't that low. Would have to compare outcomes too. Public health care is funded through taxes so its not free.
https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SH.XPD.CHEX.GD.ZS?most_…
According to this we are ranked 32 based on efficiency, so not even top 10 worldwide.
https://www.who.int/healthinfo/paper30.pdf
petrol in the UK is a lot more expensive
Petrol in Saudi is ~$0.80/litre. Most fuel-producing countries are cheaper than Australia for retail petrol.
To be fair, we pay ~45c/L excise, and then 10% GST on the total. It's annoying when you go to fill up for fuel, but at least we don't drive huge gas guzzlers like some countries (comparatively).
Australia is a fuel producing country.
We do produce fuel.
But we are apparently dependent on imports for more than 90% of our fuel needs.
Specifically re petrol, Australia's extraction of its own crude oil and related petroleum products has declined over the last decade, and much of the relatively small volume we produce is exported to Asian refineries
Politicians?
Highest paid parliamentarian in the developed world
We pay them so much so that they don't get bribed.
Little did we know that they could just take the high pay packet and get bribed too!
I don't hold an ICAC mate.
They're all cheap and nasty
Luxury goods, apparently
Interesting. As an obtuse man who owns literally 0 luxury branded items, got any examples?
Not the cheapest in the world but is at the cheaper end when the exchange rate is in our favour.
Evidence.. when borders reopen, check out the lines of tourist at the luxury goods stores.
Can't find anything lately, but pretty sure used to be the case years ago.
A lot of the big luxury names like LV, etc are slightly cheaper (but not the cheapEST) here, hence a lot of the chinese tourists like to come here and buy up what they see.
Add in the GST Refund and the fact that Chinese tourist can guarantee authenticity when buying from the stores, you can see why the Chinese love the Luxury stores and vice versa.
@JimB: China applies extra taxes to luxury goods, similar to our system before GST. So getting them sales tax free is a decent saving
Is it cheaper or just buyer confidence that its not counterfeit?
Gearbest's parent company ran one of the largest websites that sold luxury goods from here, US, EU etc. within China and the prices were crazy. Of course the trade war has resulted in a lot of the Aussie wines and other stuff to disappear.
Native animals? Koala, Kangaroos?
Are you talking about buying them or just taking them from the wild?
Koala meat… mmmh.. yum!
coles sell roos
Does SF3's come in a bag from the butchers and can one throw SF3's on the BBQ?
Good 1 OP we aren't cheap on milk vs Global . 49th
https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/country_price_rankings…
Take away the drought tax we might be better in the over supplied field .
Coal , Iron Ore and Grapes .
I think we are still cheap on milk if you take into account purchasing power?
eg
Tunisia average income
As of October 2020, the majority of the surveyed population in Tunisia (28 percent) had an average montlhy household income between 201 and 500 Tunisian dinars per month, corresponding to around 74 to 184 U.S. dollars.
I think we would win with the best tasting milk. In the many countries I've visited at least. People always told me Japan had the best tasting…. sure if you like the taste of raw milk.
Gees I sound obsessed don't I?
Getting out of the onsen and downing a Morinaga milk bottle from the vending machine is the way to do it. Literally sculling it like a pint at the rissole.
NZ milk is far superior and right next door - Tasmanian climate and milk might be on par
Having tried both - Japanese is superior. They absolutely nail the milk and eggs. And their milk is (mostly) also pasteurised and homogenised, not sure what you mean by raw
It tastes like raw milk and apparently it's common for them to try and make it taste like raw milk.
Really doesn't beat the branded milk in AU. If you're drinking supermarket brand I can understand the difference.
@Clear: Happy to take recommendation for branded milk. During my years in Japan I visited several major milk production areas. The milk I tried in Kumamoto and Hokkaido are absolutely the best - naturally creamy and sweet. The only brand I find here that come close is the Farmhouse Gold, which coincidentally also has the highest fat percentage among supermarket brands.
Breville branded coffee machines
!!! honestly surprised whenever I see a Breville/Sage product getting reviewed by someone overseas on Youtube talking about ridiculous RRPs
EPL season ticket. Optus shows all matches, 3.00pm Saturday matches are not allowed to be broadcast in UK.
3.00pm Saturday matches are not allowed to be broadcast in UK.
Why is this a thing? Am I missing something?
I believe it's to encourage attendance at lower league football matches. If a match between two big clubs is televised, then the worry is that fans of lower tier teams would watch that at home instead of attending in person at their local match. The rule is essentially there to protect the income of the clubs in the lower tiers.
https://theathletic.com/2807283/2021/09/04/the-world-can-wat…
Article 48 of UEFA’s statutes allow member nations to select a two-and-a-half-hour weekend slot where live football is banned from screens. Some reports suggest its origins date back to the 1950s but in England, the rule only emerged in 1987 when ITV struck a major television deal with the Football League.
Reacting to the proliferation of media agreements around the continent, Europe’s governing body wanted to protect attendances at stadiums and participation in grassroots games, so offered out the choice. The FA, in conjunction with broadcasters, decided that between 2.45pm and 5.15pm would be sacrosanct.
The regulation remains in place and even stops foreign matches from being shown live at that time in the UK. In 2018, the FA and UEFA pushed back against Eleven Sports, who had shown two rounds of La Liga and Serie A games during the blackout slot. Eleven Sports reluctantly relented but called the rule “unfit for the modern, digital era”.
it is only England, Scotland and Montenegro who take advantage of Article 48
Even though the rule is poorly enforced as the Welsh league airs or aired on S4C in most of the Uk. so there's still live Football legally on tv in the Uk. then there is alot of pubs that air 3pm football on a Dodgy european box normally balkans or greece based as there subscriptions are ridiculously cheap.
@C Scott: Last year I would have agreed with you wrt pirating. But now people are getting sent to jail. https://www.fact-uk.org.uk/suppliers-of-illegal-streaming-se… A pub landlord is stupid to take the risk.
BTW, Wales doesn't adhere to 48.
@Iangh: i know wales doesn't adhere but the games still air in England and Scotland think some of the Irish league may also air but the standard is appalling.
@C Scott: From talking about EPL to random Welsh games. Big drop! Even below National League, https://www.itsroundanditswhite.co.uk/articles/how-does-the-…. No wonder nobody is bothered about the Welsh Premier League being on TV.
Ah had no idea about this but it does sound like a good idea for grassroots football.
Strawberries