When you have two parallel systems where in one, medical professionals are paid a salary & hospitals are publicly funded, & in the other, hospitals need return on their investment & surgeons’ income is based on fee for service, what happens?

In my experience when you enter a private provider space you are likely to be recommended for every test & intervention under the sun. When you go through the public system you get everything you need & no more. If I had a serious health problem I’d go public every time.

Sadly in healthcare as in education, successive Australian governments have entrenched a two tier system where those who can pay are sold luxury & taxpayer funded universal services are starved of funds, stigmatised, & represented as being intended for use by only the poor. (Note that private schools & hospitals are taxpayer funded also, but as with ‘self funded retirees’ the support provided by taxpayers is glossed over or rendered invisible. The myth is that only bludgers need state support.)

We have moved from valuing the common good, to stratification based on wealth.

I have watched this happening over decades. How do we turn back?

#AusPol #governance #healthcare

Four Corners case highlights a deeper problem in Australian healthcare https://thepoint.com.au/opinions/260227-four-corners-case-highlights-a-deeper-problem-in-australian-healthcare