- by Peter Farmer
- The Guardian
- Issue #2202
Monash University clinical teaching. Photo: Monash University – flickr.com (CC BY-NC 2.0)
Many Australians know that healthcare in this country, while not perfect, is much better than in the USA. Accounts abound of US insurance companies charging a fortune and denying claims. Having to do something drastic in order to afford life-saving medical care is a stock device in US fiction, from The Incredibles to Breaking Bad.
One Australian writer has told the story of meeting a working class US citizen, a hairdresser. She was married to a man whose employer extended health insurance to the spouses of their workers. The hairdresser had stayed in a bad marriage for years for the insurance. When she finally left, she was asked what she would do for medical care. Her answer was “I pray, and I take vitamins.”
Health insurance companies have immense power in the US. To keep it that way, they routinely give six-figure sums to US presidential candidates.
Couldn’t happen here, right? Wrong. Insurance companies are working hard to get into the Australian health system. They’re already here, thanks to the Medicare levy surcharge. Many Australians feel that they have no choice but to have private health insurance.
Still, you’re sweet if you’ve got health insurance, aren’t you?
A recent report from the ABC casts doubt on this. Private health insurance companies have been pressuring medical specialists to release far too much detail on confidential patient information. The Australian Private Hospitals Association has described the insurers’ audit practices as “aggressive.”
Insurers often get permission to access medical records by inserting permission into the terms and privacy policy punters sign up for when they buy insurance.
One physiotherapist reported Bupa asking him to release patient details regardless of patient consent. Facing deregistration if he violated patient privacy, he refused. The company threatened him with having to repay up to $300,000 in benefits. A dentist has reported a company sending in unqualified auditors to review patient histories.
Insurers claim that this “friction” is important to reduce the cost of claims. It’s significant that the physio who spoke to the ABC don’t want to be named because they’re scared of the insurers.
What this shows is private insurance companies flexing their muscle. The auditors who visited the dentist cited above weren’t medically qualified because for those companies it’s all about the money.
A US-style health system would be a nightmare, but it’s not an impossibility. What this country needs is a fully funded public system.
