Scrap Medicare, mandate private health cover: NIB boss

A thought bubble by the head of NIB suggesting the government scrap the medicare system and then make private health insurance compulsory for all Australians.



Scrap Medicare, mandate private health cover: NIB boss
James FernyhoughReporter
Jul 23, 2019 — 12.00am

The head of one of Australia's biggest health insurers has called on the government to abolish Medicare and make private health insurance compulsory, with the government paying the premiums of those unable to meet the costs themselves.
In a radical solution to the growing crisis facing private health funds, Mark Fitzgibbon, managing director of NIB, said his proposal would protect the most vulnerable, while allowing the private sector to flourish without competition from Medicare, which he called a "government monopoly".
"[A] sensible policy approach would be to make private health insurance compulsory for all Australians with taxation devoted to subsidising the premiums for those who would otherwise be left behind. That is, high-income earners would at one end of the scale pay the entire premium while at the other, those with low income fully subsidised," Mr Fitzgibbon writes in an op-ed in The Australian Financial Review.
 

Ok Boomer

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People are leaving private health because it is more and more expensive, their solution is to keep jacking up fees to keep up revenue.

No way I'm paying excessive fees to subsidise retiring boomers.

They will realise a change is required eventually.
 
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Big businessman wants people to pay his company more money so he gets a bigger bonus. Sounds like a man for the people.
Whta do you mean bro, we need to strip as much money and power from government and put it directly into the hands of billionaires and shareholder. They clearly have our best interests at heart and dont forget the trickle down effect.

Honestly its time to just put all our taxes directly into the private sector, enough of this ****ed up government s**t.
 
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Whta do you mean bro, we need to strip as much money and power from government and put it directly into the hands of billionaires and shareholder. They clearly have our best interests at heart and dont forget the trickle down effect.

Honestly its time to just put all our taxes directly into the private sector, enough of this f’ed up government s**t.

To be fair that is what we are already doing.

Government of the day plays the role of the Caymen Islands washing our cash as quickly and as hazy as they can.
 
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To be fair that is what we are already doing.

Government of the day plays the role of the Caymen Islands washing our cash as quickly and as hazy as they can.
Ok ok, sure sure. Whos more likely to be doing that? Think for one second who is more likely to be hoarding astronomical amounts of cash in overseas bank accounts they havent earnt and dont deserve? Albo, etc orrrrrr the heads of insurance companies telling you to give them more money when they cant even provide a service right now, Private health insurance is a bigger scam than the banks, atleast with banks we want our money back on the a regular basis, with insurance we literally never want our money back because it means our health or wellbeing is in trouble. Insurance companies should never ever be trusted.

The 3rd richest man in America (behind the delivery man Bezo and gates) Buffet made almost all his money selling insurance people and businesses never needed.
 
WTF has Trump got to do with Medicare??? Next you will blame (GOAT) Trump for Scomo winning :p
One of the cornerstones of his campaign was to dismantle Obama's attempt at coming up with something that resembled health insurance for all and you cheered him all they way. Why don't you think the Americans deserve the same sort of universal health care that we do?
 
Any government that supported this would end their party.

That's it. They'd be done.
Don't underestimate people's hunger to vote against their own interests.
 
Don't underestimate people's hunger to vote against their own interests.
We want to give you a 1.5% reduction in your taxes, for a wage earner on $100,000 thats an extra $1500 per year in your back pocket.

We know it will happen.
 

Pessimistic

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He is the brother of a former ALP minister, who had to resign over too close dealings with him.

So when we had mediscare, it might backfire horribly.

FWIW its the mixed nature of the health cover which keeps our system relatively efficient (compared to systems skewed heavily one way or the other), although to any objective analysis, the public is wayy more efficient then private.

But thats the nature. If private promises your knee or hip operation relatively quickly, it needs plenty of idle capacity to achieve that.
Public has to book people in for months in advance, is not allowed to have idle capacity
 
He is the brother of a former ALP minister, who had to resign over too close dealings with him.

So when we had mediscare, it might backfire horribly.

FWIW its the mixed nature of the health cover which keeps our system relatively efficient (compared to systems skewed heavily one way or the other), although to any objective analysis, the public is wayy more efficient then private.

But thats the nature. If private promises your knee or hip operation relatively quickly, it needs plenty of idle capacity to achieve that.
Public has to book people in for months in advance, is not allowed to have idle capacity
I have private health and have had it for years. When I moved from WA to Vic my premiums went up by about 20-30% as I was told that Victoria was an older higher risk area and my premiums would have to reflect this. I asked why was I deemed a higher risk in Vic, the comment was they don't individually assess me, they collectively insure. About 4-5 years later after my premiums had gone up by the standard 5-10% each year without a claim, I made a single claim on my private health for glasses. The result was the next year my premiums went up by 19% and I was told that I'd been assessed as a higher health risk and my individual premiums would now have to reflect this.
 
I still have Top Extras cover, I had a recent OP that was free under the public system or would require ~$1k in out of pocket expenses if I went private.
The surgeon was the same person in either scenario.
 
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