Medicare should be reformed so it is more like HECS. When you front up to the doctor or hospital for medical services then in order to pay the medical bill you should have the option of whipping out some cash, whipping out the MASTERCARD or whipping out the Medicare card. Medicare should be a credit fascility much like MASTERCARD or VISA. The only difference should be that the Medicare debt should be repaid via the tax system in the same way that HECS debts are repaid. In fact the debt could be administered by the same bureaucracy.
Such a reform would ensure that medical consumers seek value for money. However it would still provide access for those with financial difficulties. Medicare should be regarded as a payment system not an insurance system. Insurance should be entirely optional.
Now Ross Gittins is running with the idea
..the Federal Government issue all consumers with a "health credit card" to be used to pay in full for all approved health goods and services.This might be too simple a solution for our Prime Minister, who is busy painting himself as a Crusader exemplar
The Government would then pay the providers in full and, after making allowance for the applicable government subsidies and private health insurance rebates, send the consumer a monthly consolidated bill for the outstanding gap amounts.
As with an ordinary credit card, the customer could either pay the bill in full or pay in instalments.
But, as with the Higher Education Contribution Scheme, the size of repayments would be determined by the consumer's ability to pay, not the size of the debt. Presumably, debts would be indexed to the inflation rate as a form of interest charge.
