"Second, there is no evidence, yet, that expanding the private sector has reduced the pressure on the public system. In his research on the impact of the 30 per cent private health insurance rebate, Professor Denzil Fiebig, from the University of New South Wales,"

There is a limited supply of the labour workforce in particular nurses, if expanding the private sector removes nurses from the public sector, the pressure on the public sector is likely to increase because of a reduced labour force, thus reduced capacity of public hospitals to admit patients.

There is no denying unless you are a politican, that politicans are responsible for what is happening in the public health sector.

If one looks at time series of the bed availability in Australia over three decades we have less than 50% of beds previously available.

Added to the mix is that the patients in hospital are of a much higher acuity (sicker) than ever before. This blows budgets out of the water and then hospitals get told to tighten the belt and get penalised for not staying within budget.

Sicker patients are more expensive and labour intensive. In some areas more than 50% of surgical theatre operating time is taken up dealing with emergency surgery, thus electives get cancelled.