Ok, fine. Sure. All I can say is that just isn’t how healthcare works, in other places. Sometimes you can choose your specialist, but, in the VAST majority of cases, in the public system, which most people will use, so as to avoid paying thousands of dollars out of pocket, you simply can’t usually do that.
It depends where I live. But say, hypothetically, I live in… Brisbane. I decide, for whatever reason, that I want to see a doctor in Sydney, which is a 10+ hour drive away, because I think they are better. In the public system I can’t do that, because it’s not in my “catchment area”…
Hell, in some states, if you live on the north side of the city, you have to go to the PUBLIC hospital on the north side, not the one on the south side. Because again, catchments. Otherwise the perceived “best” hospitals and doctors will be completely overwhelmed. Again, this only applies to the PUBLIC system. It also applies to PUBLIC schools. Though not universities, of course…
The rest of the world does not operate on the American model. That’s the fundamental “disconnect”, here, I think. What you’re used to, simply isn’t how it works, in the vast majority of the rest of the world, including Australia.
Notably, I also live on an island, surrounded by water. To leave this island costs minimum… Multiple hundreds of dollars.
So for me personally, even if I could, in the private system, get into a doctor I “preferred”, in a different state, the cost would be so astronomical as to not be worth it… Hence, I wouldn’t bother.
But that is still an OPTION, for me, because I actually have private health insurance, unlike most Australians, New Zealanders, Brits, Spanish, French, Brazilians, Germans, etc. in all these countries, you don’t actually need it to get good healthcare, so many, many young, fit, healthy people simply won’t bother…
But that means putting up with the public health system, and all that includes, as I outlined.
Ok, fine. Sure. All I can say is that just isn’t how healthcare works, in other places. Sometimes you can choose your specialist, but, in the VAST majority of cases, in the public system, which most people will use, so as to avoid paying thousands of dollars out of pocket, you simply can’t usually do that.
It depends where I live. But say, hypothetically, I live in… Brisbane. I decide, for whatever reason, that I want to see a doctor in Sydney, which is a 10+ hour drive away, because I think they are better. In the public system I can’t do that, because it’s not in my “catchment area”…
Hell, in some states, if you live on the north side of the city, you have to go to the PUBLIC hospital on the north side, not the one on the south side. Because again, catchments. Otherwise the perceived “best” hospitals and doctors will be completely overwhelmed. Again, this only applies to the PUBLIC system. It also applies to PUBLIC schools. Though not universities, of course…
The rest of the world does not operate on the American model. That’s the fundamental “disconnect”, here, I think. What you’re used to, simply isn’t how it works, in the vast majority of the rest of the world, including Australia.
Notably, I also live on an island, surrounded by water. To leave this island costs minimum… Multiple hundreds of dollars.
So for me personally, even if I could, in the private system, get into a doctor I “preferred”, in a different state, the cost would be so astronomical as to not be worth it… Hence, I wouldn’t bother.
But that is still an OPTION, for me, because I actually have private health insurance, unlike most Australians, New Zealanders, Brits, Spanish, French, Brazilians, Germans, etc. in all these countries, you don’t actually need it to get good healthcare, so many, many young, fit, healthy people simply won’t bother…
But that means putting up with the public health system, and all that includes, as I outlined.