I turned on the radio this morning and happened to hear some minister in Mahmoud Abbas' government talking about some reforms they were planning with the police- this is part of what he said:
'We support the private security industry and we believe as a government that you need both a strong public security system and a strong private security system.'
Nicholas Raqsani, I think his name was. Actually, I just made him up. Who I really heard was our health minister, and what she said was this:
'We support the private health insurance industry and we believe as a government that you need both a strong public health system and a strong private health system.'
But... is it really true that we need a private health insurance industry? This private health system is currently complaining that if legislation is changed so that the government no longer bullies people into buying their product, no one will buy it. I would be embarassed to be associated with a product that was as crummy as that. And in my rare lucid moments, I would ask myself, do people really need our product?
3 comments:
A better public health system would obviate the need for a private health system, which is only necessary if you feel at risk when using the public health system, which you would if you listen to Channels 7 or 9's reports on the dangers (or 'scares' or 'threats') therein.
Then the only people who would feel the need for private health cover are rich people who don't want to their post-operative recovery to be spoiled by poor people screaming for more morphine.
I have no point here.
I know I am at risk always and everywhere... and that these risks are pretty nearly unquantifiable. I know that any desire I might feel for better health care than my fellow citizens is immoral and uncharitable so I squash it.
(joke) Hmm, you'd think we could vastly improve security outcomes in Afghanistan and health outcomes here by buying up all the opium they've got and giving out a fixed proportion of all government benefits as morphine rather than money. And everyone who was employed would have a morphine quota, indexed to income, that they we would have to buy. (/joke)
I don't have a point either, I guess. It is sooooo hard to concentrate today.
If you look at it closely, the "Private" health insurance industry is so highly regulated and funded by government tax rebates, that it really is nominally on the "Public" part of the spectrum. This is slightly different from the issue of public vs. private doctors and hospitals. "Private" health cover is then basically just a conduit to doctors out of the pay of the government and independently run hospitals.
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