I saw this earlier but got busy and couldn't comment.

I found a chart that shows user satisfaction with health systems across the world. This chart is by Statistica https://www.statista.com/statistics/1109036/satisfaction-health-system-worldwide-by-country/. Australia ranks 7th (49% satisfied); Saudi Arabia ranks #1(72% satisfied); USA is 21 on the list (30% satisfied).

I'm not sure why it's so hard for governments who provide public healthcare to offer great care. I don't understand why there has to be a private component as a backup to a public system. Why is healthcare not on top of the government's priorities? In most homes it comes after food and shelter.

In my life I've experienced different levels of healthcare access. The first eleven years of life I had no access. None. No vaccines. No checkups. Nothing. It's probably why two of my brothers were invalids.

So I know what the absence of healthcare means.

After the age of 11 I had access to public healthcare: eyeglasses; routine childhood vaccines; penicillin. What luxuries! Of course, in the U.S. if you accessed public healthcare when I was a child you were humiliated. It was embarrassing to wait outside the public clinic in a long line. One time, I needed an operation on my eyelid. The doctor told me harshly to just sit still as he stuck a long needle into my eyelid. Public healthcare was a distinct, memorable experience.

However, once I became an adult and had a full-time job with full medical benefits the world changed. It has stayed changed for the last 58 years of my life. Quality care delivered in a dignified environment.

Crazy system in my country. All three levels of healthcare access exist now, as I write this. Just crazy. And not right.