[planetburgess]

Not entirely true. Many developed countries even with excellent public systems still have very active private medical insurance. Like UK and Australia. This can provide benefits like access to private hospitals, choosing your medical professional, shorter waiting time, reduced cost for elective treatment.

[cyphar]

I live in Australia, yes we have private health insurance but there are three important factors that make it different to the US system:

* You don't depend on it for all of your healthcare, it's an additional extra so that you can get some level of coverage for non-GP visits (as well as easier access to private hospitals).

* It's not provided by your employer, which is the most major difference. You can quit your job and you still have your healthcare. You also aren't scared that a new employer won't hire you because you happen to be sick and need healthcare.

* Because the government can push down prices of drugs and treatments within Medicare, it's also not prohibitively expensive like it is in the US.

I'm pretty sure I mentioned most of those factors in my original comment. Also, you can choose your doctor under Medicare. You don't need private insurance for that (the primary benefit of private insurance is you get coverage for nonessential healthcare and easier access to private hospitals).

[planetburgess]

All good points regarding Australia. It's worth pointing out over half the Australian population is covered by private medical insurance https://www.canstar.com.au/health-insurance/who-has-health-i... So it's actually very much a thing. And my experience has been the same, more than half our Australian team use the health and well-being allowance we provide them for private medical insurance.

My company administers hundreds of remote workers in over fifty countries. A significant proportion of our clients and employees (in developed countries outside the US) ask us to provide private medical insurance. It's not as big a deal as the USA and not as likely to be a deal breaker when accepting a job, but it's actually quite common in many countries.