Have you ever heard a public healthcare system story like this: Aunty Jane needs an operation on her knee. She’s been on the public system waiting list for two years. Her surgery is booked for next week. She checks into hospital on the day of her surgery. She’s prepped and ready to go, but at the last minute her surgery is cancelled. The theatre that was to be used for her knee operation is required for emergency surgery. Aunty Jane still waits for her knee operation.

I hear many stories like this one, cases where the public healthcare system lets someone down. What I am struck by, however, is what usually follows. The person recounting the story laments the state of the public healthcare system. But what they usually see as the answer to Aunty Jane’s predicament is private health insurance. So the story goes, ‘If only Aunty Jane had private health insurance, then she wouldn’t have waited the two years; she would have gone in for surgery immediately; she’d be back tripping the light fantastic down at the local dance hall on Thursday nights’.

There are two problems with this response to Aunty Jane’s predicament, however.

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