Health Minister Tony Abbott's increased subsidy to private insurance for the elderly (The Age, 23/8) is a transparent political bribe. It does nothing for those without insurance and provides an illusion of security for those with insurance. A decent response would have been to solve the problem of equitable access to health care for all of us.
The reason elderly people maintain private health insurance is mostly so that they can get care when they need it. They know that elective surgical or medical care in the public system may involve long waits, wasting time and quality of life that they cannot spare. This is in large part because of the progressive running down of this system over some years by this Federal Government.
Private for-profit health care has been shown to be more expensive and to be associated with higher deaths and complications than public care. One only has to look at the United States to see this. It is a system that is good for health-care providers, but appalling for patients. Why should our community be pushed into an inferior system?
Published in The Age 24/8/04
Andrew Watkins Hampton