What is absolutely staggering to me is that it is impossible to discuss this issue with any even moderately right leaning American. They either believe that you are lying or that it is correct for the health insurance companies to act as the death boards that they were so afraid of back when Obama was President. These problems are not fixable because we still consider the opinions of the hateful idiots valid and worthy of discussion. Until we are able to be intolerant of intolerance this is the status quo in perpetuity.
This reminds me of the clear disparity observed in covid-related deaths between public and private aged care providers in Victoria during the worst of the pandemic.
what’s the general societal and governmental sentiment on public vs private healthcare providers down there?
The overwhelming majority of Australians are supportive of Medicare (yes, Australia's public health is called Medicare), but the tax system strongly incentivises people to get private health insurance once they start earning above a certain range. I've put private health insurance off until this year, when the tax bill just became too high. For much of my life, a regular visit to a medical practitioner was typically free, or very close to free through bulk billing. General practitioners might charge over and above the bulk billing rate (Medicare covers most of the fee and the patient (or their private health insurance provider, if they have one) pays the difference). Over the past decade or so, fees charged by doctors have gradually increased while the Medicare rebate has failed to match it, which has meant the premium over and above the bulk billing rate has increased. In the past year or so, the Australian Government has injected significant cash back into the system to reduce the difference. Still, you might need to search around to find a general practitioner who'll only charge you the bulk billing rate (or just go to one of these, which are always free). The Pharmaceutical Benefit Scheme, which massively reduces the cost of medication, is a cornerstone of our public health system and people would probably murder any politician who tried to come for it. This table is a good explanation of why. It mostly works and most Australians are generally happy with it. Aged care is a completely different system to all this, though.
Money in healthcare is a huge issue and I could soapbox about it for days but suffice to say it's long been an issue at every level of care and will continue to for the forseeable future. It's far from my best performing asset but I do hold a few shares of VHT. The future retiree hopes to see it go up but the human in me wants it to disappear and end investable healthcare.
part of why i intent to stay where im living for a while is the access to a huge quantity of high quality healthcare…costs or not, there’s options here. and even the lesser options would be the “best” choice in many parts of the country. idk how people do it. I should see if VHT is rolled into any of my funds…
VHT's top holdings include United Healthcare, JnJ, Eli Lilly, AbbVie, Abbott Labs, and Merck. Any large cap ETF you hold will have exposure to those already. I just wanted a bit more because I've been entrenched in the immorality of it all for a decade now and don't see it changing anytime soon. My general large cap ETFs (VOO and QQQ) have done better likely because tech exposure in those pulling it all up. But long term I'm unfortunately confident healthcare will continue to be used for shareholder profit and not for the benefit of people so I sought out some extra exposure.