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It's funny how once a country has Universal Healthcare they never give it up.

⁨263⁩ ⁨likes⁩

Submitted ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨sanitation@lemmy.today⁩ to ⁨workreform@lemmy.world⁩

https://lemmy.today/pictrs/image/c0d3aaad-6b58-457b-936d-308bc548e921.jpeg

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  • CurlyWurlies4All@slrpnk.net ⁨25⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago

    I appreciate the sentiment but let’s be real about Australia’s adoption of universal healthcare:

    • Medibank begins in 1975 after the passing of legislation by a joint sitting of Parliament on 7 August 1974. It had only a short period of operation before the Whitlam government was dismissed in what amounted to an attempted coup by the conservatives.
    • 1976–1981: The conservative Malcolm Fraser Coalition government unwinds Medibank, scaling back universal funding and introducing private options.
    • On 1 February 1984 the highly controversial Medicare system was introduced. It established basic health care for all Australians. It offers free free or low-cost public hospital care, doctor visits, and bulk-billing supported by an income tax levy and creates a blended public system with private provider options.
    • 1997: Following a failed attempt to end the Medicare scheme while in opposition, the Howard government introduces the Medicare Levy Surcharge (MLS). This penalises high-income earners an extra 1.00% if they do not hold private hospital insurance, explicitly designed to take pressure off the public system
    • 2013: The Gillard Labor government and subsequent Abbott and Morrison governments put a “temporary” freeze on GP rebates as a budget-saving measure. This continues until 2022, as government rebates fail to rise with inflation or the true cost of running a clinic, GPs are increasingly forced to abandon bulk-billing and charge patients high out-of-pocket private fees effectively killing the system by proxy.
    • 2014: The NDIS is established to create a parallel social insurance architecture for long-term disability supports are funded with a 0.5% Medicare levy increase but funding for the NDIS is instantly being outpaced by demand.
    • 2024: Reforms by the Albanese government to curb escalating costs and tighten rules around plan budgets and provider registration cut millions from receiving care. However they also increase the rebate to make bulk billing once again viable for GPs.

    The lesson is this. There are no permanent victories.

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  • SeductiveTortoise@piefed.social ⁨39⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago

    The date in Germany doesn’t really add up, the first version was implemented in 1883 and got substantially expanded.

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  • IAmNorRealTakeYourMeds@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago

    NHS costs 4600$ per recipient.

    Current US public spending on healthcare (Medicaid, medicare, ACA subsidies, Veteran healthcare…) is 5600$ per capita (not recipient)…

    We could lower taxes and give everyone free healthcare.

    Fuck it, that extra 1000$ can go straight to the president pocket if he gives us Medicare for all.

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    • nieminen@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago

      Honestly, present that to him, that’s the best way to get positive change these days.

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      • pulsewidth@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago

        Not the worst plan. But even with a zero risk, easy win like that I’m pretty sure he’d still think he’s getting screwed in the deal and demand the values flipped.

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      • jaybone@lemmy.zip ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago

        Would be funny if he enacted a bunch of socialist policy just so he could make a one time profit, but leaving us all in a better place in the long run. Too bad his pedo buddies won’t allow it.

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  • drolex@sopuli.xyz ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Germany 1941

    Japan 1938

    Maybe not universal…

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    • idiomaddict@lemmy.world ⁨46⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago

      This probably says 1941 because it’s when “all” retirees became automatically insured, but earlier or later would also be a good answer.

      Otto von Bismarck instated a rudimentary system (German language link) covering only poorer workers and their families in 1883, but that expanded to cover everyone gradually and was then taken away from multiple groups in the 1930s and 1940s until it was reinstated for all in 1949.

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  • inlandempire@jlai.lu ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    France implemented it in 1945 not 1974 idk where that year comes from

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    • HailSeitan@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago

      The 1945 law only covered workers and their families. It took until 1999 to get full coverage based on residency. (But I also have no idea what 1974 is doing on there.)

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      • inlandempire@jlai.lu ⁨36⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago

        I dug a little, and it turns out there was a 1975 law and later 1978 removed the employment requirement to receive it, this might be why, but it’s off by a year haha

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    • AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago

      Makes me wonder if all the other dates aren’t just made up as well…

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  • starchylemming@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago

    Most on this list have slowly gutted it in one way or another im sure

    Obviously still better than, well, over there

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  • DupaCycki@lemmy.world ⁨54⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago

    Unfortunately, we might be slowly getting there.

    A lot of countries have been and continue to erase public healthcare budgets, to the point where it barely functions.

    Officially as a response to slowing economical growth… Because as usual, GDP is the only thing that matters, and of course, we just couldn’t possibly tax billionaires.

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  • feral_sh@lemmy.today ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    I really want a system like this but it is SO HARD to do in a large and diverse country.

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    • Schmoo@slrpnk.net ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      The only barrier to implementing universal healthcare in the United States is the health insurance industry, the corruption it relies on, and the racism that the corrupt politicians use to turn people against their own welfare.

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    • Jesus_666@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago

      Country size has nothing to do with it; it’s all in the lobbies.

      Much of what’s wrong with American healthcare could be fixed with a few pieces of federal legislation:

      1. Any medical practitioner who deals with one health insurance provider has to deal with all of them. Likewise, all insurances have to accept bills from all licensed medical practitioners.
      2. There are limits to how much can be billed for a certain procedure within the health insurance system.
      3. There are limits to how much a health insurance is allowed to charge for the basic plan relative to income.
      4. A health insurance’s basic plan must cover at least a certain set of medical procedures (but is allowed to cover more). These include all regular life-saving procedures and a range of preventative ones (e.g. semiannual dental checkups).
      5. Health insurances are not allowed to deny basic coverage due to pre-existing conditions.
      6. Deductibles are banned.
      7. Copays are regulated.

      This gets rid of the “out of network” bullshit and basically turns the American healthcare system into an approximation of the German one. The German system is one of the most expensive in the world and generally considered to be of middling quality compared to other wealthy nations but it’s half as expensive per capita as the American one; based on free enterprise (with a fuckton of regulations, which is normal for the medical sector); and wildly more effective than the American system, which doesn’t even rank among other developed nations.

      The only reason the USA don’t have a better healthcare system is that lobbyists spend an unholy amount of money to ensure it doesn’t and lawmakers are willing to do whatever the highest bidder tells them to. Size and diversity have nothing to do with it.

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      • feral_sh@lemmy.today ⁨41⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago

        These are great ideas!

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    • wizblizz@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Oh ok clearly it’s not worth doing, let’s fund genocide instead! Fuck off with this bullshit.

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    • deus@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Brazil did it ages ago and it is just as large and diverse as the US. I’m not saying it’s easy but it is absolutely doable.

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      • timochka@lemmy.zip ⁨16⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago

        Pff. I feel like if you understood just how big Texas is, you’d realise your mistake.

        Don’t worry, someone will be along to tell us soon enough…

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    • Admetus@sopuli.xyz ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago

      Diverse???

      Race/Ethnicity? Religion? Language? Cultures? Politics? The US is a bit short on diversity in some of these.

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    • crandall@lemmy.today ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago

      Almost as hard as the way we do it now in the US

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