| The single-payer health system. That covers everybody with a basic but high-quality level of health care. The rich can afford a (slightly) better health care using Private Health Insurance, but that generally only allows short-circuiting the length of time one waits for elective surgery. However, even the rich can get absolutely free medical care from doctors and hospitals. When I went into hospital for triple-bypass cardiac surgery, my queue-time was about 14 days from "We're not sure if we'll let you go home tonight" to "Welcome to the Theatre Suite" using the public no-charge part of the health care system. The "routine bypass surgery" (according to my medical records) was performed under the public, no-charge system. Thank-you to my Iranian-immigrant cardiac surgeon. That was followed by two days in ICU, again using the public, no charge part of the health care system. From there I went into a Private Single-bed room for the next 3 or four days, using the Private Health Insurance part of the health care system. After I went home, I had six weeks of Cardiac Rehab, again being paid for the Private Health Insurance part of the health care system. My out of pocket expenses: Zilch, nada, nuffink. The Australian public health care system is paid for by a taxation levy: the rich subsidise the poor. It's a win-win system. We all benefit. Without the system in place, the rich would miss out too, as the system would otherwise be too expensive even for most of them, if available at all that is. Without it, I almost certainly would have died 19 years ago. |