Here is an observation from someone in a country (Australia) that has mixed public and private. In my country we are continually bombarded with news stories ab

Here is an observation from someone in a country (Australia) that has mixed public and private. In my country we are continually bombarded with news stories about how bad the public system is. This was puzzling to me, because after experiencing both I think you would be mad to use a private hospital if a public one was available. There are two dynamics at play. The private hospital's customers aren't the patients, it's the doctors. It's the doctors that chose which hospital their customers go to. Thus if the doctor makes a mistake (or the hospital for that matter), it's in the hospitals interests to suppress the news. The information you do see about them is mostly paid advertising. The masters of the public hospitals on the other hand are the politicians. The opposition picks up on each and every failure in a public hospital, and parades it to every media outlet they can find to show had bad at the government in power is. Thus most of the news you here about public hospitals is bad, often very bad, and its a near continuous stream of unflattering news. This means the public hospitals are terrified of making mistakes because it will be publicised. There are literally posters in every public hospital ward advising you how to get 2nd opinions, who you can lodge complains with, and urging you to discuss any concerns with nursing staff. They will follow them up, and they will discipline / exclude doctors that cause trouble. They are free after all, so if the patient can't pay the doctor has no choice. The net result is the public hospitals the standard of care from the patients point of view is usually outstanding. Meanwhile, I've had a father-in-law with heart problems literally half carried out of a private hospital, the nursing assuring us he was fine. I think they needed the bed for a patient paying higher fees. My father-in-law died from the condition a couple of weeks later. It is true that free public hospitals are under funded, and chronically overloaded. Maybe that's probably a tragedy of the commons. The result is non-life threatening treatment can take a long while if you want it for free. But, the public hospitals do take fee paying patients. Insurance companies do pay those fees. When that happens I haven't noticed any wait times. In other words the USA system is available to those who can afford it, and those who can't wait. The major difference with the USA is they don't have the "free" option. The "wait times" thing you referred to is therefore 1/2 true, 1/2 myth.