As a fellow Australian, no. No there is not merit to it. It’s a two tier system, rigged for wealthier people to have better health outcomes.

Have you been to the GP lately? Have you seen what crazy out of pocket costs there are at hospitals? It’s gotten way worse in recent years.

Are you aware of the insanely different wait times between the public and private systems? It’s not a feature to pay to skip the cue.

Are you aware that if it’s not done in a hospital, then not even private health insurance can cover the gap if Medicare doesn’t?

Private health is a fucking scourge. And it’s a fucking joke to say that pay-walling healthcare makes overall wait times lower.

If we just had ACTUAL universal healthcare, wait-times would be equitable, and then maybe the upper end of town would actually want to fund healthcare properly, instead of these brain-dead tax cuts.

We are sitting on a pile of money (mining) that private companies are paying very little tax on.

We could be Norway. Would have been if we managed to get mining super tax through.

There is no merit to this bullshit private hybrid system. It’s getting worse by the year.