One of the problems with running insurance schemes privately, is that insurance companies use the wording of policies as a way and means of denying coverage. Just look at what is currently happening about household insurance in wake of the Queensland floods.

Similar tactics are also used by the American health insurance companies.

But then having a government run the scheme is also problematic as well.

The NDIS as currently proposed is indeed a neoliberal tool. Its starting premise is cost-effectiveness rather than needs. At the same time the onus is on the Productivity Commission to demonstrate the validity of this approach as a route to social inclusion, the broad goal of the National Disability Strategy that it will drive. It has not done this, nor does it draw on the available body of research and praxis knowledge of those values and strategies that are effective towards 'good lives' of people with disabilities and enabling their escape from the apartheid of which we heard much early in the NDIS campaign but now seems to have been ominously downgraded to 'improving' our lives.

The proposed NDIS will be a "friend" and not a "foe" of those with disability who have faced a lifetime of battling for services. As one of that hidden army of "family carers", I was told to institutionalise my child- the only option at the time. Fortunately, I didn't,and I wouldn't have missed that journey for quids. But, everything has a price and that was 40 years of our family life fighting for every single service he ever needed. Those who desperately need the "surety" part of the insurance scheme couldn't care less whether it's neoliberalism or not - the people for whom I advocate are people like our son. Finally, we have an independent reputable body like the Productivity Commission describing the system we have lived for years as "under-funded,unfair,fragmented and inefficient...". I say, "Amen" to that and we have to stop band-aiding it and fix it. The voiceless majority of those with intellectual disability, dual diagnosis and complex medical issues will welcome it as a long-lost friend. But, you won't hear from them - they can't tell you, and the emotional reserves of their exhausted family carers concentrates on getting through the next day - not arguing the benefits, or otherwise of neoliberalism, market forces, private enterprise or whatever. Thank God for Not-for-Profits. Yes, it's about needs, about rights, about discrimination, about security and about the opportunity to "live an ordinary life". Welcome to our overdue "NDIS Friend" and goodbye to the current system, which is our "foe"