Why do we need a private health insurance system?

With all the talk of Australia's slide from universal health care towards the 'broken' USA style system it got me thinking.

Why do we need a private health insurance system at all?

Ok, cue the free market outrage..  but bear with me.

We pay taxes that go towards funding our public health system. There is a specific 'levy' (Medicare) and further funding from general revenue. We also fund, through our taxes, a rebate to those who choose to pay insurance to private companies to cover them for health care costs that are not paid for by the Government.

Like all insurance companies, most of these health insurers are in business to make a profit. So the total amount of premiums paid to these insurers are effectively covering the costs of the health care they provide, the administration, the marketing, plus the profit margin. Logic says (all things being equal like efficiency etc), that if this money were funneled into the public system there would be a net increase in the amount of funding for health equal to the value of the total profits earned by the insurers.

The additional benefit of removing the profit incentive is that any changes could be focused on improving health outcomes, rather than distorting those outcomes to improve an individual provider's bottom line.

So why not adjust the taxation system (through the Medicare levy etc) to take the money that people are already paying for private health cover and apply it to the public health system?

This is the point where people who pay significant dollars to private health insurers scream "But I want the ability to choose!!!!"

And that's it in a nutshell of course, and what the essence of this debate is all about. To what extent do we want a truly 'Universal' heath care system? That universality implies that those who who are well off will fund those who aren't. 'Privatisation' works against this principle.

Supporters of the private system love to use terms like 'choice' and 'efficiency', but in reality the system is no more than the commoditisation of health service as a product. A product that is marketed and sold at a profit. Should our nation's collective health be dealt with in this way?

Even with a truly universal system, I suppose this does not stop organisations from providing additional health services if people choose to pay for them. However our baseline public health system should not be dependent upon a private system to fill the gaps. Our public system should be funded sufficiently to provide the health services that a decent and fair society demands.

Some advice for Bill Shorten's budget reply speech

There is only one thing Bill Shorten need concentrate on during his budget reply speech.

He needs to hammer home that Abbott won the election by fraud. He comprehensively lied to get elected. This was no ‘broken commitment’ because of changed circumstances. His statements weren’t vague, they weren’t qualified. He intentionally deceived people in order to win power.

That should not be tolerated, let alone rewarded.

In many ways the merits or otherwise of the actual budget measures are irrelevant, because they are not what the electorate signed up for.

I, like many, find some of the announced measures grossly unfair, badly targeted and unnecessary. However if the majority decide that’s the sort of Australia they want, then that is their democratic right. But this is not what the majority decided. They weren’t told of the Government’s intentions. Rather they were assured of the exact opposite.

Abbott has fundamentally broken his contract with Australians. Not a minor breach mind you, rather he has trashed every substantive clause. It goes well beyond any previous Government’s supposed misdemeanours, even the famous ‘core and non-core’ promises of John Howard.

It is fraud, pure and simple.

Abbott is saying their first budget is ‘fundamentally honest’. No it’s not. What does that mean anyway? That it’s honest at the core but dishonest around the edges? It’s all spin and more lies. Abbott is a pathological liar and most of his front bench are following in his footsteps.

If politicians can lie at this monumental level with impunity and get away with it there is no hope for our democracy.

So Mr Shorten, don’t waffle around about the hurt to the battlers, the working mums & dads, the sick, the old and the unemployed. Ignore the hypocrisy of tax breaks for polluters & miners while increasing taxes for the masses. Forget about the gutting of our health system and the largess of the paid parental scheme.

Those discussions can be had in the ensuing weeks and months.

For now, concentrate on the lies and the fraud. Tell people that Tony Abbott and his LNP have comprehensively and intentionally deceived Australians and that they should not be prepared to accept it.

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Watch Tony Abbott lying (with thanks to @PhonyTonyAbbott)

Previous post: I'm sick of all the lies

I'm sick of all the lies

LIE (noun) - "a false statement made with the deliberate intent to deceive"

Remember the lines in Billy Joel's melancholy song 'Honesty'?

"Honesty is such a lonely word, everyone is so untrue. Honesty is hardly ever heard, and mostly what I need from you."

That's the way I feel about the current political discourse in this country, though admittedly it goes way beyond the political sphere.



Why do so many politicians lie so often and with such impunity? Why does our media condone the practice and support it through its own deceptive reporting?

This has all been brought into sharp focus most recently by the actions of Dr Sharman Stone, a Liberal MP representing the Murray electorate. Why? Well she did something very few seem willing to do. She called the leader of her own team, Tony Abbott, the Prime Minister of Australia, a liar.

The surprise (and indeed shock) was not that people did not know he was a liar. Abbott is a serial fabricator. He regularly makes false statements that are deliberately designed to deceive. The shock was that Dr Stone actually called him one - you know, a liar.

LNP member George Christensen said that Dr Stone has gone "a step too far". What? Why? Because she actually told the truth? Because she accurately described what he had done?

This is crazy (and seems somewhat ironic). If someone is deliberately trying to deceive you they should be called out for it. Why dance around the fact with cute words. Is it now offensive to call someone a liar when they are?

When Leigh Sales was interviewing Tony Abbott on Monday's 7:30 why didn't she just say 'that is a lie' when he repeatedly said the circumstance of Cadbury funding was "radically different" to that of SPC? His own pre-election speech and LNP website propaganda proved that was a direct lie.

When something is an obvious untruth why do our journalists and interviewers not call a spade a spade? Are they afraid of being considered rude? Are they afraid of being abused by partisan hacks that take any confrontation as evidence of 'bias' regardless of its truthfulness?

Of course Abbott is not the only politician that lies. Many people just shrug their shoulders and say of politicians generally that 'they all lie', as if it's inevitable, tolerable - almost acceptable (particularly if the liar is on your 'side' of the political fence).

This attitude needs to change. Lies should not be acceptable. They are an abuse of trust.

Yes I know there are some lies that may be told to protect feelings, avoid personal harm etc, but generally speaking when a person is attempting to deliberately deceive you it is so they, or someone aligned to them, benefits at the expense of others. If politicians do that they should not be re-elected. If a media organisation does it you should boycott them. If a business does it you should not reward them with your custom.

We need a higher standard of accountability and ethics, and that goal starts with people saying they will not tolerate being lied to. Only then will there be any real change.

Alternatively, if we accept deception as something that is business as usual, trust in our public institutions won't just continue to diminish, it will evaporate completely.