Medical cover in Australia works as a three tier system - emergencies are treated immediately, for free, no matter what needs doing. Non-emergency stuff means you can be treated either as a public patient (and I've experienced the 2 year wait for a knee reconstruction myself) or as a private patient if you pay extra for it - and for the 2nd knee op & preceeding MRI, I was privately covered - referred to the specialist, saw him the same day, had the MRI on the wednesday & the operation on the Friday (I got really lucky) Out of pocket costs were about $300.
The other thing is that if you earn over a certain amount and you don't have private cover, the government taxes you at a higher rate, so it's worth more to have it than not.
I personally love that Medicare covers everybody, whether you can afford private cover or not. It doesn't matter if you have a job or not, just that you're a citizen of the country, and it's one size fits all. It's not logical to me that your health cover is tied to your job - you don't stop being sick just because you lose your job, now do you?
Wow, talk about a hornet's nest!
The other thing is that if you earn over a certain amount and you don't have private cover, the government taxes you at a higher rate, so it's worth more to have it than not.
I personally love that Medicare covers everybody, whether you can afford private cover or not. It doesn't matter if you have a job or not, just that you're a citizen of the country, and it's one size fits all. It's not logical to me that your health cover is tied to your job - you don't stop being sick just because you lose your job, now do you?