A question: How many of you who have government run health care programs have ever experienced the kind of program we have in the United States? DougR
Before Medibank was introduced in Oz, the system here was very similar to the US system and we paid through the nose for medical attention. There might have been some variation between state jurisdictions (I was in Victoria at the time) and there were lots of little mutual benefit societies that covered prescriptions and the occasional doctor's bill but it was a hodge podge with much similarity to what I have been reading in this thread about the US system.
Then we got Medibank and the only ones who complained were the diehards of the AMA (equivalent to Britain's BMA); and while McGrath is "correct: in his description of them as a "Professional Association", they behaved much the same as any other trade union. On the rare occasions I travel to the US I make sure I take out travel insurance to cover having to cope with the money grubbers but, in Oz, I wouldn't swap any part of the Oz system (with all its flaws) for any part of the US system that I've seen close up.