Some thoughtful comments, as usual, Don.

Good healthy people costs us all.

Unhealthy people costs us more.

What should I say to the people smoking a ciggy before they go in to see the doctor?
If only the men knew how much damage smoking does to their vital equipment!

medibank private on 1.4.15 raised its payments for my particular scheme by $8 / fortnight and my last pension rise was $4.10 . To much of that and there will be a whole lot more people waiting a hospital doors.

Having paid my taxes, & having thus paid to patch up the drugos, the drunks, the self caused sports injuries, & all those unfortunate enough to have normal medical problems for years, yes I do expect to get treatment now in my dotage.

Suse I wouldn't mind waiting for an operation, or having the choice to wait or use the last of my nest egg to be treated privately, but I do think I should have at least been examined sooner than the 3 years I've been waiting for examination of my knee & hip problem. The fact that they are both probably the result of an accident when a young navy pilot really annoys me.

If I had not been paying for every one else for so long, I just may have had a bit more money put away to look after myself. It is a bit late to change the rules on the old farts now.

Personally I believe paying some bureaucrat to take my money in tax, then paying another to pay my doctors & medication bill is about the most expensive & inefficient way imaginable. However, I am just one voice so have not much choice. It would be nice if the system ran a little more efficiently.

Hasbeen, I do feel for you with the knee and hip, as I too have knee problems.
I agree that 3 years wait for assessment is way too long, however, if more people who could afford to did take out private health insurance for themselves then there wouldn't be such a heavy load on the Medicare system.

I would rather save the significant amount of money my family spends on private health cover, and spend it on other luxuries, but I don't because I wouldn't like to wait on the public system treadmill for treatment.

The younger tax payers predominantly pay their health tax dollars for the benefit of the aged health care industry, as the aged in our society cost the most for health care.
Unless more younger people use the private system rather than the public one, then the next lot of aged health consumers will be waiting for much longer!

Ahhh.... Hospital Emergency Wards.

About 2 years ago I cut the top off my ring finger. I lost half the nail. So I went to the Hospital, it was the weekend. I arrived & there was a little boy about 2 years old with about 50mm of his scalp flapping loose & a somewhat distraught mother. They had been there for over an hour. About ten minutes after I arrived another lad arrived with a 100mm nail sticking out of his knee. We waited at the window & could see some Doctors & Nurses sitting around drinking Coffee & talking. After a half hour I kicked up a din (rang the bell)& a Nurse came to see what was up. I explained the situation & she said they were busy I said, "drinking Coffee & talking. " She said they had two patience's on Heart attack watch & were waiting for ambulances to take them to the City Hospital. I said while you are waiting would it be possible to see some of the people waiting. She said, "No, one patience at time & we will all just have to wait."

I arrived at 2pm & didn't leave until 11.30pm. I don't know what time the lad with the nail in his knee got attended to. No pain killers, No attention of any description to any of the people waiting at all. Just a cold blank waiting room. & the threat that if we complained about the lack of Service that Security would be called & we would be asked to leave.

The nurses and doctors did the right thing with the heart attack 'patients' Jayb.

You and the others you spoke to turned up to an Emergency department, so obviously the staff had to keep close observation on the actual emergency patients rather than the cut finger or the nail in the knee people.

If that was your relative who had just had a heart attack lying in the observation area, and the nurse/doctor left them alone to go and assess a cut finger, and the relative suffered a setback and died, you would be the first to raise merry hell Jayb.