Private Health Extortion

I cannot think of the Federal Government’s Lifetime Health Cover scheme as anything but extortion.
If they wish to encourage me to take out private health cover earlier in life, then why don’t they make the threshold for the Medicare levy surcharge related to age?

The very idea that if I don’t take out private health cover this year, that I will be charged 2% extra per year I delay once I actually do for the rest of my life is completely absurd.
Why should I be punished for the entire rest of my life for it? That is what this is. It is not encouragement, it is punishment – punishment for foolishly believing that the > $20,000 I’ve directly contributed towards the public health system via the Medicare Levy in my working life so far – (and from which I have so far never needed to benefit) actually meant something.

A friend who is approaching 31, but is not in the income bracket that would usually be expected to take out private health cover raised an interesting question – what if you can’t afford private health insurance until you are older than 31? Why should you have to pay between 2% and 70% more for your private health insurance for the rest of your life simply because you used the public health system the way it was supposed to be used. What incentive is there for you to ever take out private health insurance once you’re 40? or 50? Surely a misguided scheme like this risks backfiring?

The Government needs to decide whether or not its position on health is one of providing its people with the health care they need (and already paid for), or whether it is one of providing private companies with customers.

Sorry for the politics – particularly such a self serving and sulky rant, but every time I encounter the “Lifetime Health Cover” propaganda and its horrible attempt to paint the scheme as if it’s actually to my benefit it puts me into such a mulish and contrary mood that I feel like simply avoiding the issue entirely.

However, common sense will no doubt get the best of me, and I’ll line up to make some insurance company rich like a good little consumer tax payer before the 1st of July despite my whinging.