Lacessit

The changes I see are in access ( walk-ins no longer accepted ) and organization. The office I normally go to had Centrelink and Medicare under the one roof. Now I have to travel an extra 8 km to get to a Medicare office. Wait times on the phone, of course. According to my pharmacist, the PBS is now only paid on the first prescription - repeats are charged at the regular price. Which means I have to make a doctor's appointment once a month to get subsidized medicine. Example: I take finasteride. PBS price $7.30, retail $28. If I go to a doctor who bulk bills, I am wasting his/her time, and taxpayer's money. In a private practice, the consultation will cost about $50 after the Medicare rebate, more waste. Doctors are abandoning bulk billing in droves. I don't know who dreams this kind of BS up, but IMO they belong on a dole queue.

How long ago did this miracle occur? Based on my recent experience, I have to take your claim of a response time of 15 seconds on the phone (132 300 ) with a truckload of salt.

The balance of any bank account in Thailand is part of a pensioner's asset base, which is required to be reported to Centrelink by law. I have three Thai bank accounts, and report the balances to Centrelink when I am in Australia.

Yes to both questions.

I am predicting I will have carked it by the time the Liberals get back in, assuming they ever do.

Yes, called that number on January 30.

You should be reporting the amount you have with SCB in Thai baht. There would be little change on that basis. Yes, your pension should have increased. However, that increase is based on hiding assets in another country. If that concealment is detected by Centrelink, expect repercussions.

With your kind of luck in getting answered that quickly by a human, I'd be buying plenty of TattsLotto tickets. I said 90 minutes hang time, that's what it was.

Pre-Covid, I would walk into a Centrelink office and the staffer would confirm a concession card had already been posted to me. This time around, it was "Oh, you're here" and the card had not been posted to me, so I got a printout instead which expires in another 11 days. Hopefully Australia Post will be on the ball. You keep using the American spelling Centerlink. It's Centrelink, OK? "Scheduled maintenance is being conducted from 12:00am to 2:00am AEDT Wednesday 8 February 2023. Centrelink Business Online Services, the Child Care Subsidy ..." ( From the Services Australia website ) You may be right, it is up to clients to chase them now. Which is a pain on 132 300, given the wait times.

I have found Aldi is the cheapest by a considerable margin. As far as steak goes, I have found nothing in Thailand which comes within a bull's roar of Victorian eye fillet. IMO freezing meat prior to importation into Thailand ruins it. I tried Cape Grim eye fillet from Tops in Chiang Rai, it was tough as old boots.

You may be right, I had no concession card or PBS generated until after I attended an appointment. Perhaps I would also have continued to get the offshore pension amount, who knows?

Services Australia/Centrelink was not aware I had landed in Australia until I attended an appointment about a week later, and had taken no action to issue me with a new concession card. I obtained a temporary document at the office, pending the card issue. I can only post my experience, if people want to disagree it is not my problem.

I just shelled out $100 for pub meals in Australia for 3. I could feed 10 people in Thailand for that money and equivalent dishes, even more at a food court. Don't get me started on massages, any version.

I can only go by the advice the pharmacist gave me. I don't know if this is a recent change.

A bit off topic; however, the change made to the PBS by some bureaucratic genius has me quite gobsmacked. The PBS is only paid on the original prescription, any repeat is no longer subsidized. Which means I go to a bulk-billing doctor to get another prescription. Any cost saving generated by not subsidizing repeats is well and truly swallowed up by the cost of a bulk-billed doctor. I suppose it stops guys like me taking six months' worth of medications into Thailand, although the meds I buy in Thailand are quite often the same as the PBS cost. IMO whoever thought this one up should be on a dole queue. Paid $65 for 3 eye fillet steaks yesterday.

The pharmacist did that, and charged me $20 to do so.

A heads-up for people returning to Australia. Centrelink is now privatised under the name Services Australia. Before, when I landed in Australia Border Force would automatically notify Centrelink of my arrival. Now, Centrelink does not know I am here until I tell them, which has implications in terms of getting a new pension card, and restoration of supplements and the PBS.. Services Australia ( an oxymoron ) does not accept walk-ins anymore, one has to make an appointment. By phoning 132 200, where a wait time can be 1 - 2 hours. One other thing. Because I had all my COVID vaccinations in Thailand, Medicare had no record, so the vax I was offered was first generation Astra Zeneca. I had to have my Thai vax history uploaded to Medicare before the pharmacist would give me a bivalent Pfizer.

I gave up PPI's ( Pantoprazole ) a couple of years ago. IMO the key is changing one's eating habits. I eat a main course, low on fat, heavy on low-carb vegetables, for dinner. Dessert consists of fruit only. Alcohol only once or twice a week, before dinner. No coffee afterwards. I eat at 6 pm, won't retire to bed until at least 10 pm. I want a 3 hour gap between eating and sleeping. I have a raised pillow, and a bottle of water beside the bed. I drink half a teaspoon of baking soda in a glass of water about 20 minutes before going to bed. I have not had gastric reflux in the two years since I stopped PPI's. I am 79. I'm not saying my regime will work for everyone, it works for me.

35 - 40%, smart guy. Fat intake has nothing to do with weight loss, I am living proof. It's why I put you on ignore some time ago as an annoying troll, pick nits somewhere else.

Given the spelling and punctuation errors I've seen in a couple of your posts, permit me to doubt that.

Easy. Many of the far right capitalize on their profits, and socialize their losses. Just ask Alex Jones. Or Trump.

Netflix, Amazon Prime and Youtube Premium have taken over, along with USB's and external storage devices. I have a 1 TB drive that can store about 2000 CD's. Bluray and CD's have gone the way of bustles, drum brakes, and button-up boots.

I found the USD was gleefully accepted in Vietnam, preferred to the dong.

It is somewhat ludicrous Putin and his military think they can bombard Ukraine with waves of missiles, and be immune from any response. It's like asking someone to fight with one hand tied behind their back.