We've had universal health cover in Australia for about 45 years. Before that came in, I was bitten by something and I was talked into going to hospital. I went to a large hospital. There was no one in the waiting room I was given a shot of antihistamine and that was it. Late last year, I went to hospital by ambulance and waited 6 hours in emergency on a stretcher. I had a heart problem. There were many others waiting for help. I left via the waiting room where the non-emergency patients were waiting. It was packed. That was midnight. My visit to the hospital in 1973 cost me $5.00, which was about $50.00 in today's terms. My recent visit cost me nothing except a taxi fare home. You can have affordable healthcare or healthcare with excellent service. They are mutually exclusive. Save billions? A government run institution? I did not know Yale had a fantasy department.
Well, I can't speak for Australia but I can speak for my experience as an American (I'm an American) and I can't speak for 1973 (was 5 years old) but I can speak for the 2000's/2010's, and I have a different anecdote that proves Medicare is better.
When my mother needed dialysis, along with the other problems she was experiencing, we were supposed to take her to a dialysis center - a third party, free-standing/independent dialysis provider. However, due to other health concerns, the hospital started her off right in the hospital's dialysis center. After a few months, the hospital was saying she could go to a private dialysis center. I had concerns so I spoke with my mother's doctors. They agreed it would be better for my mother to continue in the hospital but said the hospital needs to approve it. The hospital did, and on the side the admin who told me so said that since she's on Medicare they don't have to worry about it but if she were on private then the claim would have been denied and we would have had to fight and still probably not get it approved. Huge win for Medicare right there.
The other huge win is that every month I would get the bill from the hospital - it showed the regular price which would be paid by those with private health insurance to be $100K a month. Then, next to that it showed the Medicare price - $30K a month. THEN, it showed the credit from Medicare which zeroed it all out. Thank God for this great coverage. A couple times during dialysis my mom's BP dropped drastically and she was immediately assisted by doctors and admitted for observation. Had we been at an offsite, independent dialysis center it would have required an ambulance being called and in the time it would take she may have not made it.
So if we're going to go by anecdotal evidence to prove whether Medicare is good or not, I think I'll go with my own story that I experienced myself in recent times in America with Medicare as opposed to someone in Australia's story about a snake bite (!!!) back 50 years ago.
I also have lots of other very good, positive experiences with Medicare to draw upon as well as many, many great anecdotes from my large family in Quebec who used their system for things like cancer and surgeries and other things with few to no problems.
I don't think someone living outside the USA can understand what it's like to live knowing that no matter how good your coverage is it has an upper limit and one illness or injury that's severe enough can wipe you out and bankrupt you. Easy for people to talk big when that's not a real life concern for them.
https://www.amjmed.com/article/S0002-9343(18)30509-6/fulltext
Study: Almost half of new cancer patients lose their entire life savings