[thombles]

Indeed, we are falling behind in various important areas like dental care and elective surgery waiting lists, but if you have cancer or appendicitis or some other emergency you get good care with minimal out-of-pocket expenses. When COVID happened there was never even a question about whether you would have to pay for tests or vaccinations, everyone could just do it.

Edit: I heard a funny anecdote from a friend working for a large US tech company. The corp wanted to benevolently pay for everyone's private health insurance but employees would have to switch over to a policy provided through work. That doesn't happen here and the Australians were like "uh I like having control over my own policy, I'll just pay for it thanks". Bit of a culture clash.