published letters

Published in Age on Monday, March 16, 2015

The public hospital funding crisis needs to be understood as part of a plan to privatise the health system and leave the public health system as an inadequate safety net for the poor (“$57b health shortfall fears”, 14/1). The main reason private health insurance cover has increased since 1996 from 31 to 46 per cent is fear of having to wait for care in public hospitals. High premiums haven’t stopped that increase because fear is such a wonderful political tool.

The next part of the privatisation plan is to get people to accept co-payments as normal. They are not dead, despite the Prime Minister’s claim. At the same time the government is promoting private health insurance to cover co-payments to see GPs and give faster access to care for the privately insured, relegating the uninsured to second-class status. This cynical move also indicates that the price signals that the government claims are essential are really only for the second-class citizens who can’t afford private insurance. Welcome to an American health system.