Self inflicted or not, they should be crying fowl – any policy that discourages early intervention's a turkey.

rehctub, our public hospital system is not free!

It is funded by taxpayers, and other activities that public hospitals can charge for.

If you look at the aetiology of disease, and I use smoking as an example. Smoking rates are decreasing and perhaps the peak of diseases caused by smoking may occur within the next decade or two.

There is a lag between, the cessation of an activity and the diseases that that activity may cause.

It must be remember that governments use to actively promote smoking, the medical profession also promoted smoking in the past.

<What ever happened to user pays?
Posted by rehctub, Tuesday, 24 March 2015 4:31:36 AM

In America's user pays model, the cost of health care is the leading cause of personal bankruptcy.

Most third world countries have a user pays model, which leads to people loosing their houses and if they can't afford to pay, then treatment is withdrawn and the patient generally dies.

The biggest cost driver is not the patients, but the doctors, especially the specialists.

Your specialist, more that likely has business interests in a number of pies, such as private hospitals, radiology services and pathology. The specialists will know which procedures and tests give them the highest return.

Take for example the ENT surgeon who also sells hearing aids. Audiologists on their make an extremely nice living

Once an inappropriate treatment is commenced on a patient (such as dialysis) it becomes extremely difficult to stop it.

The question is why is it not allowed in Australia to have truly private medicine.

The so-called "private" health insurance is not private at all: part of the payment comes from Medicare and there is no way to stop that payment even if you want to forfeit it. Moreover, Medicare would not even accept the money back, so even if you don't want to take a cent from the government, they force it on you anyway.

I would rather take the "visitor" health cover which is not subsidised by the government, but alas they won't give it to Australian citizens, only to those who hold certain visas. This forces me to either pay it all out of pocket, or obtain an extremely expensive international health cover from overseas.

If only they would allow those with dignity to pay or insure their own medical expenses, there would be more than enough left for those who are not ashamed to take from others without their permission.

<The question is why is it not allowed in Australia to have truly private medicine.
Yuyutsu, Tuesday, 24 March 2015 11:27:59 PM

If you really want to have Private health, then I suggest moving to America or if the Coalition stays in power waiting a few more years for them to destroy medi-care.

As America's private health care system demonstrates, it is the most expensive way to fund health care. With the US paying around 18% of GDP compared to Australia's 9.5% of GDP.

The American costs only covered about 75% of the population, with the other 25% either under funded or without health care cover.(until Obama's health cover plan)

Whilst the American private health care is the most expensive for patients, it is also the most profitable for doctors, the CEO's of health funds, hospitals ect.

<If only they would allow those with dignity to pay or insure their own medical expenses,
<there would be more than enough left for those who are not ashamed to take from
<others without their permission.

Firstly there is nothing stopping you from paying for your own medical expenses.

Using the second part of your argument about "permission" I guess you drive on the roads. Roads that parts of the taxes I pay, helped to fund our public roads. In fact many of the services that you use today were initially funded through taxation and even now taxation subsidises some of the operating costs.

Dear Wolly,

America (USA) is hardly an example for anything - it's a mad place, obsessed with violence and with the highest per-capita rate of incarceration in the world. EVERY international health insurer, including American ones, has a standard policy for the rest of the world and a much more expensive policy if one wishes to include the USA in their cover.

The ability of poor people to afford health services is not in contention and I did not even suggest scrapping the Medicare levy which is somehow meant to provide it. What I wrote about is the ability of others to insure themselves against the worst health-care scenarios.

I already pay for my own medical expenses, but most of us cannot afford those extreme (but rare) conditions which produce medical bills in the $100,000's - and that's where insurance is required.

In Australia one cannot even obtain an insurance with an excess over $500 when one is happy to pay for all but the most extreme conditions.

Even for those extreme conditions, why can't one pay a higher premium so that their insurer pays it all rather than the state? This is available not just in America, but in nearly every other place except this stupid country.

Paying your own fees ensures that the doctors are loyal to you, the patient, and serve you alone, their only patron. It also ensures that your private medical information is not passed on and kept by people whom you cannot trust. If more people did so, the competition as well as the simplicity and avoidance of red-tape would also bring about a reduction in their fees.