What is wrong with Medicare?

To the Editor: In reply to my critics whose letters were published in the 20 February issue of the Journal1-4 after the publication of my article “What is wrong with Medicare?”,5 I would ask them to look broadly at Australia’s health care dollar and how it may be misspent. It is clear that the percentage of practitioners who wilfully set out to defraud Medicare, Veterans’ Affairs, workers compensation and other forms of insurance is relatively small. However, the current structure of Medicare, which is the result of poor policy decisions, allows inappropriate practice, as well as inefficiency and cost-shifting.

Inertia in health care reform will continue to diminish our ability to deliver a first-world standard of care into the future. My critics would do well to consider this.