Crisis looms as Australians look to ditch private health insurance
By Adam Gartrell
The Sydney Morning Herald, September 17, 2016
Almost 70 per cent of Australians with private health insurance have considered ditching or downgrading their cover in the last year in the face of relentless price rises and diminishing value for money, polling has found.
Close to 80 per cent of people believe health insurance companies put profits before patients and more than 90 per cent are concerned they’re trying to “Americanise” the health system to boost their bottom line.
Asked for their opinion on the statement “private health insurers put profits before patients”, 53.5 strongly agreed and 24.4 per cent agreed. Fewer than 10 per cent of people disagreed with the statement.
A whopping 73 per cent said they were “very concerned” about the creeping Americanisation of the Australian health care system and a further 18.6 per cent said they were “somewhat concerned”.
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Comment:
By Don McCanne, M.D.
Under their conservative government, Australia seems to be creeping toward American-style privatization of their health insurance. Over 90 percent of Australians are concerned about this “Americanization” of their system. Can’t we learn something from them?