Health Insurance - state mandated theft

http://www.crikey.com.au/Politics/20080229-What-do-you-think-were-running-here-Medicare.html

A commentator after most - if not all - of our hearts :).

As a 'refuser', I deeply resent the cost of not being a member of a private fund (i.e., my tax 'fine' for exercising free choice not to further enrich insurance companies).

The introduction of a system that has failed to deliver health equity outcomes or budget savings in the USA is not, in my view, likely to save us here. The previous government's continuous attempts to force us to buy a product that delivers higher health costs and lower health benefits, demonstrates that their purpose was to serve other than human entities - especially when you consider that no one actually 'owns' these companies.

How peculiar is it that all these benefits flow to 'virtual' entities - i.e., businesses that exist without 'base' ownership in the human world. They have 'shareholders' and their boards and executives change/rotate/stagnate over time, without anyone with a real relationship to the 'service' to keep them in line. The 'powers' within the companies just come in, 'stick their snouts in the trough', then move on to another trough, to which they have as little commitment or personal investment. Meantime, we get the unenviable job of filling those troughs and carting off the waste when the feeders are through.

If in doubt, just look at the current ABC (the child care centres, not the media outlet) scandal. A business, with control over arguably the most precious of our species, run by and for the profit-makers. They get the benefit of government rebates to those who need childcare, while pushing up their prices to well beyond government subsidy levels for enrichment of their shareholders and the top dogs get to sell their own shares 5 minutes before the bottom drops out of the share price. Never mind the question of how the price can go down on this 'gold mine' growth industry, where ABC is the dominant player (and, incidentally, where those who do the real work of caring for our children are among the lowest paid of workers, with a very high level of responsibility and risk).

Too late to say "don't get me started", I think, LOL; but you get the point.