The Australian healthcare system, often praised as a model of universal care, has its own cracks that suggest it's not immune to profiteering and systemic flaws. While it's not as overtly predatory as the U.S. system described in the article by Michael Snyder:
https://michaeltsnyder.substack.com/p/33-shocking-facts-that-prove-that
there are parallels that point to money-making mechanisms embedded within Australia's hybrid public-private framework. Here's my case that the Australian healthcare system can also be seen as a money-making scam, though it's more subtle and cloaked in the guise of accessibility.
First, let's look at the scale of spending. Australia's healthcare expenditure is massive, projected to hit around $140 billion annually by 2025-26 for federal contributions alone, with total health spending (public and private) consuming about 10% of GDP. This isn't as astronomical as the U.S.'s $5 trillion, but for a nation of 26 + million, it's still a staggering sum. Much of this flows through Medicare, the public system, but a significant chunk fuels the private sector—hospitals, insurers, and specialists—who operate for profit. The question is: does all this money translate to better health, or is it siphoned into inefficiencies and corporate gains?
The private health insurance industry is a glaring red flag. Nearly half of Australians hold private cover, incentivised by tax penalties like the Medicare Levy Surcharge if they don't. Yet premiums are skyrocketing—rising 3-6% annually, often outpacing inflation. In 2023, private health insurers raked in $1.3 billion more in profits than two years prior, while policyholders face policies riddled with exclusions and gap fees. You're paying thousands yearly for "choice," but when you need surgery, you're still hit with out-of-pocket costs averaging $1,500-$3,000 per procedure. This echoes the U.S.'s insurance profiteering, where companies thrive by denying claims or limiting coverage—here, it's just dressed up as optional.
Then there's the issue of overbilling and fraud, which smells like the U.S.'s hospital overcharges. Investigations have exposed specialists and hospitals inflating Medicare claims or billing for fictitious services. One case saw a patient charged for cerebral palsy treatments she didn't have, costing her insurer thousands. Another report found anaesthetists routinely exaggerating procedure times to boost fees. These aren't isolated—experts estimate fraud and waste could be draining billions from Medicare annually. The system's complexity, much like the U.S.'s, creates loopholes for exploitation, with patients and taxpayers footing the bill.
Pharmaceuticals add another layer. While Australia's Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme caps drug prices, the government still spends $45 billion over four years on subsidised medicines. Big Pharma's influence isn't as blatant as the U.S.'s $15 billion ad blitz, but global drug giants negotiate hard for PBS listings, often at premium prices for marginal benefits. Meanwhile, patients with chronic conditions—like cancer or rare diseases—face gaps in coverage, forcing them to shell out thousands for non-subsidised treatments. It's not the $700,000 neonatal bill from the U.S., but it's still a system where life-saving care can hinge on your wallet.
The public system isn't blameless either. Medicare's touted as "free," but bulk-billing rates are plummeting—only 16% of GPs fully bulk-bill, down from 90% a decade ago. Out-of-pocket costs for GP visits now average $40-$60, and specialist fees can run hundreds. For the 2.7 million Australians with chronic illnesses, these costs stack up fast, mirroring the U.S.'s medical debt crisis, albeit on a smaller scale. In 2023, one in five Australians skipped care due to cost, a stat that screams systemic failure for a "universal" system.
Finally, outcomes don't always justify the price tag. Australia's life expectancy is high at 83 years, but infant mortality (3.1 per 1,000) lags behind peers like Sweden (2.1). Chronic disease management eats up $70 billion annually, yet diabetes and heart disease rates keep climbing. If the system's so great, why are preventable conditions thriving? It's as if the system profits more from treating sickness than preventing it.
On the flip side, defenders argue Australia's system is a world apart from the U.S. Medicare ensures no one goes bankrupt from a broken leg, and public hospitals handle emergencies without a credit check. Private insurance is optional, not tied to employment, and the government regulates prices tightly. But these strengths don't erase the profiteering. Insurers, specialists, and Big Pharma companies still exploit gaps, and patients still pay, whether through taxes, premiums, or gap fees. The system's not broken like America's, but it's creaking under the weight of vested interests.
In short, Australia's healthcare system isn't a scam in the cartoonish, U.S.-style sense—no one's billing $30,000 for a three-day stay. But it's a slow-burn money machine, where complexity breeds exploitation, insurers and specialists pad their pockets, and patients are nickel-and-dimed under the banner of "universal care." The promise of equity is real, but so is the profit motive, and it's the latter that's quietly winning.
https://michaeltsnyder.substack.com/p/33-shocking-facts-that-prove-that
"The goal of the healthcare industry in the United States is to take as much money away from you as possible. I truly wish that I was exaggerating, but I am not. Can you guess which nation spends the highest percentage of GDP on healthcare? Without looking it up, you probably already know that it is us. Gigantic pharmaceutical corporations and massively bloated health insurance companies are raking in colossal mountains of cash, and yet the quality of the healthcare that we receive in return is rather quite poor. People living in Albania, Panama and Kuwait have higher life expectancy rates than we do. Residents of Belarus, Cuba and Latvia have lower infant mortality rates than we do. We are the most medicated population on the planet and yet we are also one of the sickest. If the U.S. healthcare system was a country, it would have the 6th largest economy on the entire globe and yet rates of cancer, heart disease and diabetes continue to soar.
The numbers that I am about to share with you are absolutely stunning. For as much money as we spend on healthcare, we should have the greatest system in the world by a wide margin.
But we don't.
We have lost our way, and I don't know if we will ever be able to find our way back.
At this stage, our healthcare system is completely and utterly dominated by immensely powerful money making institutions, and those institutions pour vast amounts of money into political campaigns in order to make sure that there will never be any serious reforms.
There are literally trillions of dollars pouring through our healthcare system. Those that are becoming exceedingly wealthy from this system will do whatever it takes to protect it.
So it is dangerous to even write an article like this.
Pharmaceutical corporations aren't in the business of saving lives. What they want is for you to take their pills for as long as possible, and they want the profit margins on those pills to be as large as they can get away with.
Health insurance companies are more profitable when they provide less healthcare. Every year health insurance premiums go even higher, but when it comes time to pay out, health insurance executives will deploy their "delay, deny and defend" tactics. They will search high and low for any potential reason that will allow them to deny a claim.
But of course most Americans feel that they must have health insurance because of how absurdly high medical bills have become. Many hospitals have adopted a policy of charging "whatever they can get away with", knowing that the vast majority of their victims will never challenge their grossly inflated bills. If you have been hit with a hospital bill that is five or six figures, you know exactly what I am talking about.
The system is broken.
Everyone knows it.
But it never gets fixed.
The following are 33 shocking facts that prove that the entire U.S. healthcare industry has become one giant money making scam…
#1 The U.S. spends about 5 trillion dollars on healthcare each year.
#2 What the United States spends on healthcare is greater than the GDP of the United Kingdom.
#3 If the U.S. healthcare system was a country, it would be the 6th largest economy in the entire world.
#4 Federal, state and local governments account for nearly half of all healthcare spending in the United States.
#5 Today, more than 68 million Americans are enrolled in Medicare.
#6 If you can believe it, more than 71 million Americans are enrolled in Medicaid.
#7 Does it seem like almost half of the commercials on television are for pharmaceutical drugs? You may not be surprised to learn that pharmaceutical companies actually spend more than 15 billion dollars on television advertising in the United States each year.
#8 According to one survey, 61 percent of U.S. adults are currently taking at least one pharmaceutical drug.
#9 Globally, the pharmaceutical industry brings in about 1.6 trillion dollars in revenue each year. That is more money than the Pentagon spends.
#10 There are 10 pharmaceutical industry executives that received total compensation of at least 20 million dollars in 2023.
#11 According to the CDC, 1.5 million people a year are rushed to emergency rooms in the United States because of adverse reactions to pharmaceutical drugs. 600,000 of those people are age 65 or older.
#12 On average, more than 1,200 pharmaceutical drugs are recalled by the FDA each year.
#13 In 2023, the six largest health insurance companies in the United States had combined revenues of almost 1.1 trillion dollars. That is also more money than the Pentagon spends.
#14 The profits of health insurance companies in the U.S. increased by 287 percent in a 10 year period.
#15 On average, annual health insurance premiums for family coverage have reached a total of $25,572 per year.
#16 In 2023, the CEOs of the five largest health insurance companies in the U.S. brought home approximately 75 million dollars in total compensation.
#17 The CEO of UnitedHealth Group, Andrew Witty, received a total of 23.5 million dollars in compensation in 2023.
#18 One survey found that 18 percent of all insured adults in the U.S. have had a health insurance claim denied just within the past year.
#19 More than 27 million Americans do not even have health insurance.
#20 Why are c-sections on the rise? It is because a vaginal delivery costs approximately $12,235 on average, while a c-section costs approximately $17,004 on average.
#21 The infant mortality rate in the United States is nearly three times as high as it is in Singapore.
#22 According to the CFPB, approximately 100 million Americans are in medical debt right now.
#23 Even though the vast majority of the population is covered by health insurance, 62 percent of the two million personal bankruptcies that are filed each year in the United States are caused by medical debt.
#24 One survey found that U.S. households have piled up more than 220 billion dollars in medical debt.
#25 A three day stay in the hospital will typically cost you somewhere around $30,000.
#26 Americans spend more than 200 billion dollars treating cancer each year.
#27 According to the CDC, heart disease costs this country more than 250 billion dollars each year.
#28 According to the NIH, diabetes costs this country more than 400 billion dollars each year.
#29 A 25-year-old mother in Nevada was handed a bill for $700,000 after her baby daughter spent about two months in the neonatal intensive care unit.
#30 One study found that hospitals overcharge Americans "by as much as 18 times over their costs".
#31 78 percent of U.S. adults have avoided hospital visits because they cost so much.
#32 Hospital profits have risen by more than 400 percent since 1999.
#33 A study that was conducted a few years ago determined that more than 90 percent of all hospital bills contain errors that can result in "overcharges, unnecessary costs, and insurance claim denials".