Yeah, the medical industry in Australia is probably similar, sliding away from universal health care.

I mean it’s nothing like the US but I do feel that we’re headed in the wrong direction.

10 years ago it wasn’t hard to find a GP that wouldn’t charge you anything on top of the government rebate. Now the rebate is usually about half what the GP is charging.

That said, myself and those in my care have spent a lot of time in hospital over the last few years and we haven’t paid a cent for any of that. My partner gave birth to Twins, it was a “complex pregnancy”, all fit and well in the end but we spent 3 months in another city to be near a specialist hospital. Govt paid for a nice apartment for us for the whole time, absolutely gold standard care from the miracle workers at that hospital, just amazing honestly.