Here (Australia) we have one broadcast channel paid for by the government (ie, by taxes). In this case TV is exactly the same as the free healthcare we get (also paid for by taxes).
Yep. And the !#!$ers are promising to increase funding to healthcare by 30% in 5 years. Doctors already got a 100% raise last decade in some provinces and one of the biggest cost is physicians.
Meanwhile, the doctor lobby lobbies its ass off to prevent cheaper alternatives like nurse practitioners or the reduction of importance of hospitals for anything but emergencies or weird shit.
I'm probably only slightly more informed than you since I live here.
However, that's not indicative of a well functioning system. I can't find a nice pie chart for you, but it's about 20% of costs. It is the largest single cost.
And it is kept high by absurd education requirements in many cases. If you read a few healthcare books about the American system, you will probably find similar criticisms. There are so many government sanctioned monopolies in the healthcare system that it's impossible to change it.
In Canada, the healthcare system is basically a non-competitive rationed care system. If you know someone who personally knows the surgeon you need, you will get the care you need. However, if you do not good luck to you. I've had personal experience with this in my family (on the good side, prognosis was a minimum of x months to live without surgery, surgery was scheduled for x + y months(!) and we had to use our considerable network to get the surgery faster.)
But it was free, right?
Trust me when I tell you that the reason people are living longer is not because of the Canadian government's healthcare. In fact, the quality of life of many people is severely diminished because of the cost spiral.
But in general, it works very well for I-impaled-myself-in-my-crotch emergency care.
Edit: I should add that I have physicians in my family and they are very happy with the current system. In particular, compensation. I completely agree with their viewpoint: it's fair pay for the level of education they've had to receive. However, 90% of the work is routine and could be carried out by people who have less education. From my discussions with people in the healthcare system, this would reduce costs dramatically and potentially improve outcomes as well.
