Posted by Michael Wonder on 20 Apr 2017
Propping up private health insurance is like putting lipstick on a pig
20 April 2017 - History is repeating itself. Medicare was created by the Whitlam government because of the abject failure of private health insurance or, as it was then called, voluntary health insurance.
As a result of the growth of private health insurance since 1999 under the Howard government, Medicare is now seriously threatened. Government subsidies for private health insurance will take us back to the pre-Whitlam and pre-Medicare era.
The Australian government today knows that private health insurance is in real trouble. But for ideological reasons it wants to prop up what John Howard foisted on us in 1999. That is the reason for the current review. It is like putting lipstick on a pig.
