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Originally posted by theking
In other words it is a relative thing. Does Australia in fact have free socialized medicine as Joe Sixpack seems to indicate and if so...what is the need for private insurance?
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I can't speak for Australia, but the UK has private health insurance alongside the socialized program.
There are two main reasons people in the UK who can afford to, opt for private insurance. The first is that while you are treated immediately under the National Health if you have urgent problems, things such as hip replacement would not normally be considered urgent and you might wait 12-18 months for your operation. Private insurance usually lets you avoid those delays.
Secondly, National Health patients are likely to share wards with other patients and if they want a TV for example, will need to rent one. Private patients get their own rooms, all the trimmings and more flexible rules about visitors.
Generally the cost of such insurance is low and it may include things like extensive annual checkups as well as full coverage. A reason it is less expensive than insurance in the US, is the dampening effect of the presence of a universal health care program: try to charge too much and it would quickly seem like very poor value. The main reason is simply that the real cost of providing health care in the UK is less than 20% of the cost in the US.