NSW Election

[PhilG]

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[Psyber]

Psyber I'm not saying that the good teachers left the system because they weren't being paid enough. I'm saying that offering more money would have encouraged them to stay - no matter what the reason was that they left. You're right about the paperwork - that's what the admin of a school should be doing. My mother was offered a desk job once, but she rejected it wanting to stay where she was - as a school librarian.

I didn't know that Medibank was set up that way. No wonder it was replaced by Medicare. It's also no wonder Fraser was keen on just ripping it up - but it's also no wonder he got a lot of opposition from social groups. I do agree that the Medicare levy isn't enough, but the solution there is to apply the surcharge to those who don't have FULL private insurance (under the same salary criteria as presently exists). I know - you'll say that's oppositional, but there are still too many people who are being the proverbial Ebeneezer Scrooge over money. So what do you do?

Mal Fraser turned MediBank into MediBank Private and gave people the choice of paying the existing levy, managed by the Health Insurance Commission now renamed MediCare Australia, or taking adequate private cover.

When Bob Hawke became PM the old MediBank structure was recreated exactly as it had been under the new name MediCare, and the option to avoid the levy by joining a private fund was abolished. Then a sort of semi-NHS was pushed for with them trying to create regional provider numbers for medical registration so the government could tell doctors where they had to go. Even today, as a residual of this, if a doctor moves 100metres down the road he has to apply for a new Provider Number - they can't actually refuse him one, but it suggests the bureaucrats have not entirely given up on civil conscription or the UK style NHS. His "Prescriber number" for PBS prescribing however stays the same and the address is just updated - both are administered by MediCare.

So Medicare is still the old MediBank - underfunded, and geared to trying to tell professionals how to do their job. That is why last year only about half the general practitioner training positions in Australia were filled. All the medicos I know socially are encouring their kids to do anything but Medicine - Vet, Dentist, Law - and those who do Medicine go where the funding and glamour is IVF, surgery, or other technical areas. In the meantime doctors themselves are changing careers - I know four in software development now, and three who studied law on the side and changed careers. [And at present 39% of doctors are over 50 and thinking about retirement.]

Law is a good bet - it will be the last profession MPs and bureaucrats screw with because there are so many MPs who are lawyers and want to be sure it is still there to go back to and still independent and lucrative. I can make out a case for a levy to fund "Legalcare" for all but the pollies will never go for it!

It worries me too that there are so many lawyers in politics - after all basically lawyers lie for their living!

[PhilG]

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[Psyber]

I agree with you about Medicaid in the US, in fact despite its faults and the motivation behind our present system I think we have a better arrangement than either the US or the UK. My concern is that our health theorists like the UK model because it is controllable and rationable, but they would never say that was what they liked about it.

I think if we hadn't had MediBank our older system may have turned into something better still.

Rural medicine?
Yes it needs to be attractive. Once rural doctors were supported by state funded rural hospitals, which are being closed by the economists, and the legal system only expected them to do what they could, not to perform to the standards of specialist Obstetricians or Surgeons in city hospitals. To make it attractive again those conditions need to be re-established.

Beyond that, rural practice probably costs more to run, so does sending your kids to go schools [probably private ones they board at during term] and there are the costs of your wife or yourself travelling to the city to visit family. So, you have to earn more. And it needs to be attractive enough to be able to attract locums so you can have the odd holiday. That was my argument when Paul Keating wanted to introduce regional provider numbers and force young inexperienced doctors to go work in country locations unsupported.

Perhaps what is needed is scholarships for country kids who like living in the country and will go back there instead of all the places going to whoever got the highest ENTER score - the mathematically and technically inclined, who then go on into high tech medicine like research and IVF.

Once upon a time rural doctors kids became rural doctors, but of course once the ENTER was all that mattered the didn't get into the courses!

Beyond the legal levy, I'd like to see lawyers banned from becoming MPs. I'd also like to see us end the oppositional legal system we have in favour of something like the French system where the lawyers prime duty, whoever they are representing, is to cooperate to help the court establish the truth. Wouldn't that be a contrast!

[Magpiespower]

I'd like to see lawyers banned from becoming MPs.

At the same time, ban them from writing books and making movies!

[PhilG]

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[Coorong]

Can't wait for the new website, I'll bet it will be riveting stuff! Do you plan to make it interactive?

[Psyber]

I think if we hadn't had MediBank our older system may have turned into something better still.

Well, we'll never know - but I don't agree with that. Chiefly because I don't see how we could have gone anywhere and properly supported those who couldn't afford medical treatment without becoming like the Yanks - if not worse than them.

On the rural doctors - the scenario you put is actually part of a wider problem. That being the lack of support in general for the regional areas. It's why companies don't like setting up in the regional areas - even though it's cheaper location wise, transport costs make it unviable (as the local support has been wound back as everyone gravitates to the city for work and so forth). It's why I'm an advocate for better transport - particularly trains. And the creation of centres in certain areas to support that. Your idea wouldn't work without that support (as good as it is).

That system was already better then the US system and the UK system and the system we have now - all it needed was some refinement to catch up with those who for whatever reasons had not gotten around to applying for membership and the federal subsidy on the one sheet of paper required at the time.

I agree that there is a wider issue about encouraging anyone and any business into regional areas - and, yes, I like trains on dedicated corridors rather than buses and trucks all over the roads. It would reduce the cost of adequate roads too. Pasenger trains however, at least in the cities need security on board to make them safe to use.

I'd like to see lawyers banned from becoming MPs.

As much as that would be nice - it would fly in the face of democracy. The only way around that is to push lawyer laden parties out of office, and make sure that the political landscape is created so that the people would never vote a lawyer in - if you see what I'm getting at.

Agreed - it was not a serious suggestion because it would be undemocratic - we need to change how the law works and thus change they way lawyers behave - as below.

I'd also like to see us end the oppositional legal system we have in favour of something like the French system where the lawyers prime duty, whoever they are representing, is to cooperate to help the court establish the truth. Wouldn't that be a contrast!

Absolutely! Put the onus of proof on the people involved - not their lawyers arguing what's allowed and what's not! I'd start by limiting the amount of adjournments - if something can't be sorted within a certain period of time, push on. It will increase the quality of work being done, and it would also save those who use lawyers money - making Legal Aid's budget more realistic (again if you see what I mean).

I agree - once the lawyers are involved only the lawyers benefit - one of the ways that messy divorce settlements are resolved is the lawyers get the lot and ther is nothing left to argue over - the same seems to apply in some WorkCover cases. Legal aid is underfunded - another shirked state government responsibility.

[PhilG]

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[Coorong]

Can't wait for the new website, I'll bet it will be riveting stuff! Do you plan to make it interactive?

I'm using Wiki technology for it, Coorong - but the rules there are pretty stiff (for my own protection from established enemies for the record). But the short answer to your question is yes.

See, now you have got me so excited I just cant sleep. What with your political commentry, interest in footy and the new website, you must just collapse each night exhausted.

[PhilG]

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