It sounds like America is in danger of jumping from the frying pan into the fire. I think the Australian system shows a way out. We have BOTH a public and private system. Governments of both parties have slowly learned how to make it work better. What makes it work is competition. The free public system develops waiting lists for elective surgery. Poorer people put up with that. Others buy private health insurance. If you go private you more control and you end up with a bill – normally in hundreds of dollars for surgery and few days in a private hospital. If the private system gets too expensive people go public. They can do either -their call – even if they have private insurance. Both sides are kept reasonably honest. It is a case of the government setting up the rules so that there is this kind of balance. Labor put in national health and the conservative party tried to ease it out and got thrown out in the 70s. Labor tried to ease the private system into oblivion and failed. The conservatives next time around didn’t try to kill the public system but encouraged people with rebates to take out private insurance while still charging them the separate and identifiable Medicare levy on their tax form. It isn’t perfect but it beats anything I hear proposed in the US. Hint. Single payer means monopoly. Monopoly means no competition. Capice?
