Mums Finance

This is one in the eye for greedy American retail giant K-Mart. The proposal to open its NSW stores during the morning marches sparked national outrage. Kmart managing director Guy Russo was quoted as saying yesterday that the company made the decision after an avalanche of criticism from politicians, ex-Diggers and customers.

“Having listened to the strength of feeling from our customers and the broader community, I will withdraw Kmart’s application for early trading on Anzac Day. I got this one wrong and on behalf of Kmart, I apologise,” Mr Russo said. Nice one then Mr Russo!

Federal Veterans Affairs Minister Alan Griffin had said Anzac Day was an occasion for remembering those who fought and died for their country, not for shopping and he is so correct. Anzac Day is a very important day in Australia, on par with Australia Day in January, and to think that this store could not go one day without making a profit is annoying to say the least. We don’t shop on Anzac Day, we remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country.

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In Australia we have Medicare – in the UK they have the NHS – in America they have…well, they have to insure or save…or just wait their turn. I am talking about healthcare schemes and it seems that no matter what system is in place you end up either on a waiting list or having to fork out a lot of money. Having insurance certainly makes a big difference – in the US for sure – but despite the best intentions of schemes like the NHS you often are better off going private if you can afford to.

In  Australia you can insure yourself for private health care, in the UK you simply have to pay for it. It is not out of the range of many people despite the costs involved – what you need to do is create a health savings account for yourself which will pay for a private hospital and your choice of doctor. It could be well worth it in the long run considering the waiting lists right now – and the risk of contracting one of those deadly infections that are endemic in the public hospitals.

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When the Govt makes something compulsory you know that the average citizen is not going to be the one who benefits the most. In the case of the Home Warranty Scheme in NSW this has proved to be the case with a wave of unhappy policy holders.

The scheme was introduced and made compulsory by former NSW premier Bob Carr in 2002 in order to cover home owners against poor or incomplete building work, but despite having collected over $225million in premiums insurance companies have paid out just $16million in claims. This is well below the usual premium-to-claim ratio of 65 to 80 per cent for consumer protection insurance. The scheme has been declared a rip off and claims of mismanagement have been fired at the State Govt by the Office of Fair Trading.

Even though insurance companies have greedily taken enormous profits from the consumers, the scheme in turn has been notoriously difficult to claim from with many who have gone bankrupt trying to claim for money to repair their homes. Another legacy of Bob Carr – a complete and utter failure for the people.

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