StrypeyApr 9, 2024

"I get sick every time I go to the doctor that I still get subsidised and I can't opt out of the system. Now that's wrong. I was trying to take the welfare state off the middle class."

#JennyShipley, 2017

https://www.rnz.co.nz/programmes/the-9th-floor/story/201841731/the-challenger-jenny-shipley

What this atomised mindset misses is that it's not her being subsidised, it's the doctor's surgery. If you want to contribute more according to your means, you do that by raising taxes, in ways that target those on higher incomes.

#neoliberalism #PublicHealth

The Challenger - Jenny Shipley

In part four, Guyon Espiner talks to Dame Jenny Shipley about being the first woman on the 9th Floor, plus coups and coalitions, welfare reform and Winston Peters. And, above all, her commitment to change.

RNZ
Show threadStrypeyApr 9, 2024
Besides, applying means testing to universal services vastly increases bureaucracy, and usually ends up costing more in accountancy than it saves. All while starving public services of the funding they need to improve quality of delivery.
Show threadStrypeyApr 9, 2024

(1/?)

The thought that universal services subsidise the middle class only becomes possible to think within the neoliberal frame of "user pays".

What used to happen in public health, for example, is that the government looked at what funds were needed to maintain clinics and hospitals, pay doctors, nurses and receptionists fairly, and so on, and put that in the budget. Then they left medical staff to triage people seeking care, according to need.

#UniversalServices

Show threadStrypey

(2/?)

There was never any question of whether the country could afford health care for everyone who needs it. We were and are a wealthy country, of course we can! Especially when there's copious evidence that timely access to health care can avoid much more costly care down the line. Eg recent research showing that removing prescription charges saves more than it costs in hospitalisations for under-treated conditions.

Apr 9, 2024 at 9:54pmWeb
Show threadStrypeyApr 9, 2024

(3/3)

The health budget was treated as an entirely separate matter from whether the overall budget was in deficit or surplus. If it was going to be in deficit, and the money supply didn't need to expand, you'd raise taxes on higher earners to get a surplus. That way, money that might otherwise be spent on private health insurance - ending up in the pockets of insurance companies - goes into maintaining the public health system for everyone who needs it.

Show threadStrypeyApr 9, 2024

"We'll tax you fairly, but you should spend your money as you see fit because you know better than us what to do."

#JennyShipley, 2017

https://www.rnz.co.nz/programmes/the-9th-floor/story/201841731/the-challenger-jenny-shipley

Another neoliberal dogma. The implication is that individuals can achieve the same thing with each dollar they spend that each dollar of govt funding can. It's just not true, see health posts above.

Shipley doesn't even believe it. Elsewhere in the interview she talks about leadership and doing the right thing even if it's not popular.

The Challenger - Jenny Shipley

In part four, Guyon Espiner talks to Dame Jenny Shipley about being the first woman on the 9th Floor, plus coups and coalitions, welfare reform and Winston Peters. And, above all, her commitment to change.

RNZ
Show threadscattermutantApr 9, 2024
@strypey The right tends to get very bossy about how people spend their money if they happen to be poor.