St. Mary's Cathedral

Healthcare

After writing my previous blog post on public safety, Safe City, and reflecting on the larger theme of concern for the common good, I decided that I wanted to continue to explore aspects of this theme and how a general feeling manifests in Australian policy. Health care has always interested me, so much so that I am currently planning to attend medical school and become a doctor. I felt that perhaps learning more and exploring ideas connected to the Australian healthcare system would not only connect to themes I have been exploring but may also reveal something about the United States system.

Australian health care consists of public and private sectors. All citizens and permanent residents pay a 2% income tax levy that funds the Medicare program; in turn, all hospital visits are covered, and general practitioners as well as specialists are subsidized. Australians can also purchase into a private health fund which likely covers what the rest will not. High earning citizens who decide not to participate in a private health fund must pay an extra 1% to Medicare. The first thing that struck me when learning about this was a name. A private health fund is a different description than insurance. Insurance has more of a connotation of protection against something, in this case perhaps financial burdens in case of health problems. However, a health care fund has a connotation of a communal collection. Names are indicative of use but more likely of the nature of the one who placed the name. In this case, a private health fund indicates that perhaps the Australians want it to be thought of as more of a product of the community and less as a business.

Australian health care and United States health care are vastly different. For one, Australian health care is mandatory for all citizens and permanent residents. The United States have Medicare and Medicaid, government programs, but cannot guarantee all Americans health care. This is directly reflected in many aspects or measurements of our health, such as life expectancy; Americans have a lower life expectancy than Australians. Another notable difference between the two countries is the high-income citizens are penalized if they do not purchase into a private health fund. The consideration of this ever happening in America is almost laughable.

 In the minds of many Americans, being the land of the free (choice) overtakes being the land of the healthy when it comes to choice on health care. This is the core of why United States healthcare is different in these ways. There are people who have special interests, but the way they present the argument and gain support against common good are by invoking these fundamental basis of our Constitution and asserting that that is what they mean. Land of the Free perhaps could instead be interpreted as Land of the Free from Disease.

On the bus on the way back from Gosford, I met an interesting elderly woman named Narelle. We had a lovely talk before I decided to ask her about her perspective on the Australian healthcare system and what that means for her. Narelle explained how the system works very well for her and is fortunate enough to be able to buy into a private health fund. Or discussion then turned to the popular perception of the program. I was surprised; her comments seemed to turn more to the extreme, asserting, “Other people would want it to encompass more than it does.” Coming from what I know, I would have assumed that this was the extreme, and the dissent would come from the opposite direction. And of course, when I did my own research, there is also definitely dissent from that side. But that comment made me shift my perspective from seeing things through what I know to trying to see things from a more objective point of view. Our conversation turned to what she specifically would want to change about the system, and again she surprised me. She began talking about the bureaucracy and how she, as an educated woman, could get a healthcare card for elderly people. She said she “feels very sorry for people who are new to this country and are underprivileged for one reason or another… who feel like the paperwork are a series of trick questions.”

            There just seems to be a general consciousness in most situations and people that I have encountered. Of course I know that this may only be a small subset of Australians, but on the whole people just tend to care about each other more here than in America. When I was visiting Paddington’s Market, strong winds threatened to topple an entire tent. Countless visitors flocked to hold down the tent, but more interestingly, other vendors abandoned their own tents to help hold this one down. This shows not only the policies that enforce the Australian sense of community as a value, but as a norm that can be seen in everyday lives.

Natalie Kelley