Two points. One huge difference between the Aussie and American health insurance is the deductibles demanded by many. In a recent conversation with an American friend, he quoted his deductible to be $6000. That means, he can only claim on his insurance once he has spent a total of $6000 on healthcare in any one year.T1 Terry wrote: ↑Thu Feb 04, 2021 2:11 pm 1) Healthcare. If you can afford private medical insurance, then it is similar to the USA, you can still go belly up paying the fees that the insurance doesn't cover. There is public health system, it was great in the early days but a lot governments since its inception have steadily wound it back till it is a rather long wait to actually get into a hospital ... unless you could die immediately, then it is an emergency and there is a better chance you will get treated before you die from the problem ....
Regarding our public health being wound back......Yes. A definite issue. One I believe should be pointed out wherever possible to raise awareness. The latest example must surely be the aged care facilities in Victoria being hit by Covid. Public run aged care? No issues. Private? Ah, let's blame the workers.
On my last trip there one thing I noticed were the ads for PRESCRIPTION drugs being advertised. They were urging people to tell their doctors to prescribe them XYZ drug.Is our TV ads dominated by drug companies? If you include caffeine, "naturcuticals" or some such made up word a worn out sports commentator is using about a multi-vitamin pill that are part of the booming vitamin industry, anti inflammatory drugs in rub on medication, pain medication in varying organ destroying varieties, weight loss drugs ..... the list goes on, are you sure we aren't suffering just as bad as the yanks with drug company advertising?
2)
I'll just dispute the word Multi-national. I believe Coles, Woolies etc are Aussie only, but still a big problem.Food:
We do have good supermarket fresh food now, but the independent fruit and vegie shops forced that change on the multi national companies to up their game.
I can't speak for small towns but I do remember my parents describing the coffee here, (compared to USA & Canada) as amazing as far back as the 60's. We arrived here in 1960. I was too young to be drinking coffee but for decades afterwards, whenever my parents visited us in Oz, their first request, at the airport was for a cappuccino. (Dad's second was always a Carlton draft)Coffee only became drinkable in the smaller towns after Macca's introduced decent coffee,
I put the coffee revolution down to the Italians arriving, not Maccas.
100%.....But I go further. We're going the same way as the USA with big box stores. Anyone travelling to America for a holiday, take note of not only the Malls but the big stores. There are zero small stores. And, zero girls on registers. The only way, as I see it, to stop the same thjiong happening here, is to not support the box stores and refuse to use the self-checkouts. I personally do the latter 100% and the former maybe 75%. I often find it difficult to get what I want unless I go to Bunnings.5) Small shops: I think the Covid 19 shut downs will se a lot of these vanish unfortunately, they were struggling against the bigger mall type multi nationals before the lock downs but many won't have the $$ behind them to survive.
Jim
Giving Maccas credit for making proper coffee available, not likely, the did sell that over brewed burnt mud here for yrs, but I do give Maccas the credit for making good coffee more commonly available rather than the bigger cities with speciality coffee lounges .... the coffee at the average service station restaurant etc was woeful, ask any older truckie 
It only kept you awake because you couldn't get the taste out of your mouth 
