Make anything free and people will abuse the priviledge.Nothing is free ,so why do we pretend that a turn up and pay nothing health system will have results?
Everyone should pay something to see their Doctor.This limits trival complaints and people who just want to visit a Doctor to be less lonely.Increase aged pensions and even they will pay something with the exception of those who are diagnosed with chronic life threatening conditions.
In NSW our health system is bordering on being totally dysfunctional even though extra billions have been poured into the health budget.
With the new expensive technoloy that will prolong our lives at the expense of the X generation,excessive taxes will drive them into poverty.
We all have to take more responsibility for our individual health by leading healthier lifestyles and be prepared to pay higher health premiums for being irresponsible.
The wealthy should not have access to free health care and be prepared to take out insurance.
The standard of health care has seriously diminished in the last 40 yrs,yet we remain in denial about the reality and the reasons for it's demise.
The baby boomers cannot expect the newest medical technology at bargin basement prices,just to exist few more years.This should not happen at the expense of younger generations losing serious quality of life.

Arjay,

Basic health services should be free and available .

That's what taxes should be for.

People with little education need help through the Heath System to learn about strategies that will keep them healthy and OUT of Hospitals and AWAY from doctors and other healh professionals .

It's not rocket science ,but it does take commitments from politicians .

Just look at Health and Dental [rare] services in the bush, it costs a fortune in transport costs just to get to the doctor.If he bulk bills it helps and is a small incentive to get that vital check-up.

Arjay

The health debacle is due to the decision by government that Australia would cut back on training and cover any shortfalls with skilled immigration. The abysmal decision has totally backfired, with the wages blowout a consequence. Then there is the impact of increasing obesity.

But to suggest that all woes a due to a failure to embrace the capitalist ideal sounds like a throwback to the cold war. Michael Moore had great fun and games with this idealistic attribution of good and bad with "Sicko".

Your assumption that health will become a greater financial burden is also excessively pessimistic. Medical advances are discreet and haphazard, not continuous and regular. They also carry enormous potential to provide positive economic benefits, as they can make productive people from invalids, and also may replace more costly and less effective therapies. This is the case with treatments for tuberculosis and schizophrenia, and there is every reason to believe there are far more developments to look forward to.

Think of the history of things like computing, immunology, water supply, electricity, space travel, insulin, penicillin and genetics, and you quickly realise the respective benefits of state and private endeavor, and potential of them to complement one another.

Kartiya and Fester ,you have not addressed the real decline in both Doctors standards and the service we get in our hospitals.Doctors are deserting the system in droves only to be replaced by cheap imports whose standards are not tested.In NSW our hospital system is on the verge of collapse because we have too many idiot bureaucrats and a system abused because it is perceived to be free.We are not training our own health professionals because it is cheaper to import them,but on average we are getting inferior medicine.

Make everyone pay $10.00 to see their GP and pay something to visit a hospital.This will discourage the tyre kickers.By discouraging those with minor ailments,more money will be available for those in serious need.It is still socialised medicine but we remove the perception of it being totally free.

We will gladly spend thousands on servicing our cars,yet balk at paying for a service on our bodies.It is time to get our priorties right.

I think most people would be amazed at the frequent and extremely generous financial handouts given to GPs as "incentive payments" or as bonuses for meeting accreditation standards, not to mention the hundreds of dollars per hour that many are paid just to attend after-hours emergency clinics.

It won't be long until we adopt aspects of the US free enterprise health system in any case, even as a result of our Free Trade Agreement alone. There is already mounting pressure on parts of our PBS system now, so why not go all the way and abolish that socialised health system as well?

The basic human rights in any civilised society are the rights to food, shelter, the protection of Law and access to urgent medical assistance if required - otherwise, what's the point?

Our system did not become Socialized yesterday, it is a product of the English health system as it once was.
Once with out doubt Queensland had the best system in Australia.
I truly believe the opposite may be true, the importation of more American type health care, cash cash cash ,may have harmed our system.
In picking a doctor now we should be careful to pick one more interested in our health than free benefits drug firms offer doctors.
While the rich must pay, only in America, hopefully never Australia should the poor be left out.