A mandate really just isn’t the answer either. Let’s give people a little bit of credit at being responsible adults.

The high-risk pools just mean that they (the people obtaining the insurance, not the taxpayers as a whole) will most likely have to pay higher premiums to get their services covered. Hopefully it will also encourage regular visits and not encourage putting off problems until they become a big issue requiring an ER visit or a hospitalization.

I am Australian, and though I see there are problems with our health care system, I think it’s pretty good.

Yes, public health is funded by our taxes. Yes, there is a 1.5% medicare levy that we pay on our taxes. My household pays about $1200 a year: two adults, two children. We don’t have to pay the Medicare Surcharge (only high income earners pay that), but we do have private health insurance, which costs us under $2500 a year.

We have insurance because it reduces waiting times for non-essential medical services. I have to get my wisdom teeth out soon, but because I have insurance I can go to a private doctor at my convenience rather than wait until I can get a place at the public hospital. But it also is insurance: if we end up really sick then we have options for our medical care. We aren’t at the mercy of which doctors are available at our local public hospital, and it would reduce costs of things not covered by medicare. But, if we couldn’t afford insurance then we wouldn’t be up the creek without a paddle. I don’t pay for top level insurance, so I had both my kids in the public hospital. My only cost was a co-payment for my initial GP appointment for the referral to the hospital.

There are things that aren’t covered by medicare, or are only partially covered by medicare. You can go to a GP for free, but some GPs charge over the scheduled fee. We pay the difference. When you reach a certain threshold (about $600 for a family) medicare covers more. If you pay over $1500 in medical expenses in a year your tax is reduced by 20c in every dollar you go over.

An Australian paying $14400 a year for health care is probably also earning $500k a year. (But they would also be paying a lot of tax – which goes to a lot more things than just healthcare!)

From what I understand, we pay similar amounts, if not less, overall tax here than you do in the US. From what I have heard, I’d much rather be sick in Australia than the US!

*We don’t have to deal with the government in relation to health issues, it all goes through the healthcare providers. If there is a problem with a prescription, etc, we just talk to them. Nothing complicated.
*Doctors here are either “bulk billing” (ie no upfront cost to the patient and the doctor receives full payment from the government per patient) or fee paying (you pay the full fee to the doctor and then you can claim most of this back from Medicare immediately).
*Doctors’ salaries are fixed by the government. As a granddaughter of a self-employed General Practitioner, I can assure you that they’re not hard done by
*The “feel better” stuff you’re referring to is the service accessed through private health cover – massages etc. These aren’t covered by Medicare.
*We do view healthcare as a basic human right.
*Most importantly, it works. This isn’t a trial system, we’ve had a universal healthcare system in place since 1975. Obviously it’s never going to be perfect, everybody will always find something to whinge about, but the bottom line is that if you need medical care, you get it without financial worry. I don’t understand the attitude that you don’t want to pay for other people in case they get more worth out of it than you. You’re not a better, more worthwhile person because you struggle to fund health insurance for yourself. You still pay taxes that go to projects that you personally don’t get to give the final approval for. I graduated from uni seven years ago (with an interest-free student loan) and have risen my way up the tax brackets. I have never EVER looked at other people and wonder how much of my tax dollars they’ve eaten up. What a crappy attitude and a sad way to live.