Armchair_Politician wrote on Dec 29
th, 2013 at 6:53am:
Be thankful our health system is NOWHERE near as expensive as that which exists in the US, even with this $5 fee.
Which governments were responsible for this? Labor governments. Chifley gave us the PBS (and successfully passed a referendum to get it), Whitlam gave us Medibank (while dragging the Liberals kicking and screaming through two Senate rejections, a DD election AND a joint sitting to do so), Hawke gave us Medicare (after Fraser took away Medibank). What do the Liberals do? They try to make health care more expensive whenever they get in so they can manufacture a market for the private health insurance industry.
Quote:The Yanks must look upon us with envy.
Only the people, if they find out about it. The Republicans and the pharmaceutical companies consistently put pressure on Australia to wind back the PBS because to them it is a dangerous idea that Americans must not see. And of course the Liberals would be complicit if they thought that they could get away with it.
Quote:Having said that, this fee probably would not be necessary if Swan knew a single thing about being a Treasurer.
The Liberals would find any excuse to wind back public health care. They did it under Fraser, they did it under Howard, and they are going to do it under Abbott. Finance has nothing to do with it, it's just a convenient excuse.
Funny, that! Every time we have a Labor government, they go on a Jihad against Private Health Insurers and their members because they take patients (and money) from the crumbling public system that is underfunded and under-resourced.