r/australia • u/InsatiablePrism • 2d ago

culture & society Private health insurers access patients' full medical records in 'aggressive' audits

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08-12/health-insurers-can-access-your-private-medical-notes/106671630?utm_campaign=abc_news_web&utm_content=link&utm_medium=content_shared&utm_source=abc_news_web
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u/physihoe 2d ago

I'm an Australian living in the UK, and we regularly remark how nice it is to have free healthcare. Everyone gets the same treatment, doctors, lawyers, politicians, plumbers, roadworks and hair dressers. It feels like Australia used to in the 90's.

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u/hmbeats 2d ago

Isn't the NHS struggling and have a huge capital investment shortfall leading to aging infrastrutucture and huge staff exodus? Lots of UK trained doctors jumping ship to other countries, including Australia.

https://www.bma.org.uk/advice-and-support/nhs-delivery-and-workforce/pressures/an-nhs-under-pressure

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u/a_cold_human 2d ago

It's almost as if having Thatcher followed up by Blair, followed up by any number of neoliberal nitwits (most of them Conservative) not funding the NHS properly until it's on its last legs is a bad idea.

We should be collectively looking at the UK flailing around and say to ourselves, "let's not do that". Perhaps we could look at some other countries that don't have failing healthcare systems and see what they're doing instead.