Posted by http://www.choice.com.au/ArticleView.asp?CatID=ArticleID=541 on June 05, 1998 at 22:36:42:
Risks in a two-tier health system -- CHOICE
May CHOICE highlights one woman's experience of both Australia's
and America's health systems, showing what can happen to
individuals when they fall through the cracks of a two-tiered health
system -- one tier for the rich and one for the poor, such as in the US.
Recent calls for a two-tiered health system and the means testing of
Medicare would mean only those classified as 'poor' could use Medicare,
says CHOICE.
This would force everyone else either to take out private health insurance or
run the risk of being uninsured and landed one day with a medical bill they
could not afford -- or simply not having access to the treatment they
needed.
When a CHOICE subscriber's US-based mother was widowed and not
working she developed a pre-cancerous condition and needed a
hysterectomy. She couldn't afford private health cover, but was ineligible for
low-income assistance and too young for the US Medicaid system, which
only covers people when they reach 65. She had to wait two years for her
operation and could have developed full-blown cancer in the time she had to
wait.
In stark contrast was the same subscriber's experience of the Australian
system. When her husband developed cancer two years ago, he got into a
public hospital almost immediately and, as a result, he is well today.
I would hate to think of the position we would have been in, in the US,
particularly if he hadn't been working. We would have been in debt for
thousands of dollars for medical expenses that would have taken the rest of
our lives to repay, said the CHOICE subscriber.
She continued that the number of Americans without health care and at risk
of being in debt for the rest of their lives because of medical bills they can't
afford to pay is the reality of what will happen to people here if they
'Americanise' our health care system. The American system is plagued by
powerful insurance groups and a limited government health system. I
believe Australia has got it right and I am happy to pay my taxes to support
a system that is fair and humane.
CHOICE rejects the need for fringe benefits tax exemptions and further tax
surcharges to coerce Australians into private health insurance -- this
undermines the universal nature of Medicare and take us a big step closer
to a divided system where only the poor can use public hospitals. It calls
on governments -- both state and federal -- to build on Australia's universal
Medicare system, which delivers good health outcomes, quality of care and
keeps costs under control.