Elroo
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- Jul 2, 2014
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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
The head of one of Australia's biggest health insurers has called on the government to abolish Medicare and let the private sector pay for healthcare.
www.afr.com
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.