Back in 2014 Canadian Dr. Danielle Martin spoke at an American Congressional hearing about single-payer health care.

During her evidence she made the following assertion;

“Australia used to have a single tier system and in the 1990s moved to a multi-payer system where private insurance was permitted, and a very well known study by Ducett et al tracked what took place in terms of wait times in Australia as the multi-payer system was put in place and what they found was in those areas of Australia where private health insurance being taken up and utilised wait times became longer.”
http://www.c-span.org/video/?c4486962/dr-danielle-martin-senator-richard-burr

We in Australia tend to measure ourselves against the markedly unfair US health system and feel pretty chuffed. I will admit it did not dawn on me that our own system would ever have such an appraisal.

Ducett et al found that;

“This study has confirmed the findings of previous overseas studies that suggest that increased private sector activity is associated with increased public sector waiting times, the reverse of the rhetoric supporting policies to increase support for the private sector in order to “take the burden off the public sector”
http://www.publish.csiro.au/ah/pdf/AH050087

Having one of my own relatives recently told there was a waiting list to be put on the waiting list I feel we may well have been conned by those politicians who drove so hard for profit seeking private health system to grow as much as it has in this country.

Dear SteeleRedux,

So what you are saying is that people should not be allowed to pay their own medical fees?

For me that would mean that I could not receive any medical service whatsoever in Australia because I refuse to accept any tax-payer's stolen money.

Let me tell you, the prices I pay to see a doctor or have a medical test are already way through the roof because I have to compete with the "public" system which pays the AMA anything they ask. The doctors laugh all the way to the bank!

Just one of the issues the overpaid, seat polishing Senators should be examining and another is superannuation, specifically the management costs that eat away over 20% of the final sum.

However, Labor and Greens have always been much more interested in gay politics and still are.

Political correctness rhetoric and protest and identity politics.

Dear Steele,

We have always had private health cover and I cannot
imagine not having it. We also subscribe to ambulance
cover as well because we believe in it and in supporting
the excellent service they provide. I can't imagine
living without private health cover and it certainly has
come in handy with all the operations and hospital stays
that I have gone through thus far. I don't know what we
would have done without our private health cover.

We can always rely on SR to come up with a Marxist, anti-private enterprise rant based on quotes from some other unknown ranter. He can throw himself on the mercy of the public system if he wishes; others will take responsibility for their own health.

The most expensive public hospital in the world, the new Royal Adelaide, completed its opening yesterday, and there has already been a case of serious infection.

we have been conned because the socialist went into hysterics about having to pay $7 to see the doctor while suckers paying medicare and private health insurance often get little benefit. Private insurance is a con simply because their is a leech mentality in Australia. Look at how the Labour party got aware with blatant lies about medicare last election.