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.

It would be great to have private health insurance in Australia.

The problem is that we don't!

The so-called "private" is not really private.
The "private" companies all follow strict directions from government and worse, when there are claims, some of it comes from Medicare anyway (which is why I couldn't claim even on my "private" insurance), they only pay the "gap".

We should be able to take a health insurance according to whatever terms and conditions are agreed between us, the insurer and nobody else!

Waiting time for operations etc.

To compare before and now one would need accurate records on numbers of doctors, nurses, available hospital beds, and population etc before the changes as opposed to now.

Like nearly everything in Australia the various Governments have created the problem by closing hospitals and reducing staff.

Possibly to force people on to paid medical schemes.

If SteelRedux and Greens would like to propose a way to provide timely, quality, medical and hospital services for all Australians without a private system then they should be welcomed to go right ahead.

Maybe if the gravy train that Whitlam was instrumental in getting going was derailed and expensive, bothering quangos like the Australian Hunan Rights Commission were put out with the trash. Getting rid of the Senate and cutting out the redundancy of two over-stuffed national broadcasters would help.

Queenslanders were doing well before being forced into Medicare and it was being paid for by public lotteries.

Well folks some interesting replies.

I recently had a person I had sold a business to say he felt obliged to pay for health insurance because Medicare should be left for those who need it most. He was quite taken aback that I didn't have private health insurance and intimated that I was in some way taking advantage of the system. How have these attitudes started to become prevalent?

Australians have traditionally been very supportive of our universal health care system despite the conniptions it causes our budding neocons. However I'm sensing a steady erosion of the ethic that gave us such a egalitarian programme and I think it is detrimental to this nation and what we have traditionally stood for.

Somehow many Australians have taken up the neocon mindset of user pays and bugger our responsibilities to others. The reason why a system like Medicare is still strong is sheer weight of numbers supporting it. However it is harder for corporations to leverage the kind of profits they make in the US. They will divide and charge through the roof if they get the chance and some of us are sleep walking into just such a regime.

If the private health system has lengthened rather than shortened waiting lists in this country then why should it attract billions in subsidies. Time for a rethink.

Dear SteeleRedux,

«bugger our responsibilities to others.»

First, we already pay taxes to support the poor, including with their medical needs. I did not suggest that this should stop, only that we should be able to pay for our own medical expenses and/or arrange with other parties any health-cover for ourselves and our families that is appropriate to our personal situation and without any relation to government (no subsidies either).

No self-respecting person would accept money that was taken from others by force - but let those who do not respect themselves continue to do so.

Second, why do you call this "responsibilities"?

"Responsibility" can only relate to my former actions and commitments, so unless I have harmed others or otherwise committed myself, the question of responsibility to help does not arise. Yet I still want to help due to the kindness of my heart. If you deprive people of their ability to express the kindness of their heart, then sure enough you would get the "bugger" response and other negative attitudes.

SR,

The benefits of a private health system are similar to that of private schools. It gives private patients the choice of quicker and more comfortable procedures at a price, and with the Medicare subsidy for private treatment as a fraction of the cost of the same treatment in the public sector, it reduces the cost of medical care to the taxpayer.