[waylonk]

I live in New Zealand, and the system is neither completely liberalized, or deregulated, and works fine.

There is a public healthcare system that is paid for by taxes. The quality is really good generally, though rationalisation does happen with time, so we have quite big waiting lists.

However, there is also a private medical system that you're free to use. The largest one is actually a non-for-profit insurance society, and they run a chain of hospitals as well. If the public system is overloaded, sometimes Health Boards (government) will pay private hospitals to do operations.

Either way, medical insurance is really cheap, optional, and healthcare is seen as a right between the government and the citizen, not some weird relationship with an employer.

Move to New Zealand?

[rdtsc]

> There is a public healthcare system that is paid for by taxes.

I wouldn't call that "liberal" and "deregulated". At least no according to US political-speak. Providing a free alternative and thus competing with the health insurance companies is a pretty obvious involvement in the health care by the government.

That is a sane option and I like it. We have enough regulation and involvement but it just stops short of actually offering a viable free alternative. So the government sticks its fingers in the pie and makes a mess then the health insurance companies do the same and in the end the citizens get screwed.

[lostlogin]

Southern Cross health care - not for profit, but I wonder what it's executives earn? It isn't a feel good organisation at any stretch, and the beady eye of the government has reached out in the past due to some unethical practices they have. Preferred providers etc - keeping the money within its hospitals more like it. I might be cynical, but I've observed them working within the private healthcare sector and it isn't pretty.

[lancewiggs]

Directors were paid $48,000 and the chairman $80,000. The CE and senior executives earned a total if $2.7m between them all. All FY 2012. And all very reasonable

https://www.southerncross.co.nz/Portals/0/Group/Corporate/20...

[lostlogin]

Good link. The flip side of that is that each director got about national average wage (how many hours did they work?) and the executive wages are high. Membership is falling and they are making money (unexpectedly more than predicted, so this is accidental). This isn't a company out to help New Zealanders, it's out to feed its hospitals a steady flow of high paying patients.

[archangel_one]

Keeping money within its own hospitals sounds more or less what you'd expect, surely? That's the whole point of having their own hospitals? And I expect the executives are paid quite a bit. I'm sure they're not a bunch of angels, but nobody says you have to use them. FWIW, I've used them once in the past, and observed my father doing the same, and we've had no complaints. The premiums seemed reasonable, as well; far from the horror stories one hears from the States.