Australian healthcare reform: in need of political courage and champions

To the Editor: The Editor’s article on health reform and the Australian Health Care Summit,1 in which he expressed sentiments with which I agree, included a Box setting out the “egalitarian and socially cohesive principles underpinning Australia’s healthcare” reaffirmed by the Summit.

However, the Box contained a Christmas tree and an invitation to readers to enter a poem in the MJA’s Christmas Competition 2003. Among the lines were: “’Tis Christmas, the season to be kind”.

While obviously the result of a glitch in the production process, you managed — much to the envy of other editors and publishers seriously wounded by such glitches (to the extent that entire print runs have had to be pulped and then reprinted) — to fall on your feet.

I could not think of a better (or more comprehensive) set of principles to underpin our healthcare system than those embodied in the message and spirit of Christmas.

Perhaps God moves in mysterious ways.