LEIF NJORDSSON: I have a novel idea that Health Partners’ CEO Byron Gregory might like to get his head around (Private health changes will hit everyone, InDaily, August 13, 2013). What would happen if the private health insurance rebate was stopped entirely for everyone, and the entirety of the rebate money was put into the public health system? Would this not actually reduce waiting lists?
It is possible to argue that the health fund rebates are yet another example of middle and upper class welfare, at the expense of the long suffering taxpayer. The subsidizing of what amounts to an insurance system at the expense of a public health system seems to be a philosophical rather than economic decision.
It is well established that while the bells and whistles in the private system may be better, the actual care which occurs is no better than the public system. So what are we really paying for when we attend a private hospital? Actually several things.
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We are paying for “pretty” – generally private hospitals are more aesthetically pleasing than public hospitals. We are paying for faster access to medical practitioners and services. We are paying for the right to select our own treating specialist, although how many of us really choose our own specialist is debatable. We get whatever specialist our GP sends us to. We get the right to maybe pay a large gap for our stay in hospital when we find our insurance doesn’t cover things. We get the right to be shipped to a public hospital when something untoward happens because most private hospitals do not have 24 hour medical cover and are not equipped to handle emergencies, or seriously deteriorating cases. We get the right to have really pleasant nursing staff who in some cases appear to operate within a lesser qualified staff mix and in some cases get paid less than nursing staff in public hospitals.
We have to ask what we really get for out taxpayer dollars? Would we get better “bang for buck” if this money was put into the public health system instead of subsidising a profit making venture in the form of MOST health funds and private hospitals (I am aware that Health Partners is technically a not for profit service).
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