[ExI] Australian state public health system update

[Lee Corbin]

Stathis writes


> Damien B wrote:
> 
>>  SURGEONS are quitting Victoria's public health
>>  system in alarming numbers, dismayed at their
>>  working conditions and pay, a ministerial review says.
> 
> One problem is that specialists such as surgeons working in private
> are paid (ironically often by the same universal health insurance
> scheme) per procedure, while in public hospitals they are paid per
> session.

I see.

> The public/private discrepancy is smaller for non-procedural
> specialists, like most physicians.

Hmm.

> In the final analysis, public hospitals have to give their employees
> reasonable pay and conditions or lose them to the private system,
> interstate or overseas.

But doesn't the tax payer already feel like he's *owed* treatment,
and so if he goes private or offshore he'll essentially be paying twice
over?  That could discourage a lot of people, (except the very rich).

By interstate, of course, you mean say from Queensland to Victoria,
say.  Now, in that case, does the tax-payer again feel as though he's
paying twice?  Or if you have an ailment and you live in Perth, can
you get treatment in Sydney as easily as a resident of that latter city?

Lee