[Op/Ed] "Canada's ObamaCare Precedent"

[Lusankya]

Heh. I wish the US model would wind up looking like the French model. It's an excellent health care system and probably better suited to American conditions than the Canadian model. Even the Australian model of subsidized mandatory insurance would be better than our present condition. Instead it's probably going to look like Medicare for Everyone, and that at best.

What Australian model of subsidised mandatory insurance is that? I'm Australian, and I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about.

[MarshalPurnell]

As I am given to understand the Federal Medicare system is funded by a 1.5% tax levy, and provides subsidies to create universal access for basic medical care. Individuals are encouraged to purchase private insurance, with rebates for the premiums given on a sliding basis. Individuals earning more than a set amount of income are penalized with an additional 1% income tax levy if they do obtain a suitable level of private coverage. While "mandatory" mat be a little strong, it's pretty clear the government intends that everyone who can afford private insurance obtain it and provides incentives to that end while punishing "free riding" on the public insurance system.

[Lusankya]

That doesn't really make it equivalent to "mandatory insurance". Levies in Australia are just the government saying "we want you to pay more tax". Unless you're going to call every tax dollar that goes towards insurance "mandatory insurance", then you're being quite silly. Besides, having private insurance doesn't disqualify you from Medicare. It just means that you use the public system for things that Medicare does best and the private system for the things your personal insurance does best (having something covered by my private insurance in no way prevents me from getting it treated publicly should I so choose).

And besides, Australia spends less per capita on healthcare than both France and Canada, and has a higher life expectancy than both countries, so I'm not quite sure what your problem with the Australian system is anyway.

[Guardsman Bass]

Heh. I wish the US model would wind up looking like the French model. It's an excellent health care system and probably better suited to American conditions than the Canadian model.

I like what I've read of the French model, but I do have some concerns related to administration - France is a unitary system of government with heavy centralization, while the US is much more federalistic.

[MarshalPurnell]

I didn't say I had a problem with the Australian system. It's much more likely to serve as a model for universal health care in the US than any other system, if there ever is a systematic reform. It's less sweeping than the Canadian system and does not carry the baggage of being linked to France. Of course, the US is likely to just adopt universal health insurance with basic care through a Medicare-like system and mandating employer health insurance, without really doing anything to change the basic nature of insurance or to rein in costs on the hospital side which negates a lot of the point of universal health care.