Tax incentivsed rubbish cover is the best way to put it. Taking out private cover (and never using it) is cheaper than paying the lifetime loading Medicare levy surcharge for most households earning over $100k a year. And all that money goes into some corpo’s pocket rather than to the government to help fund our public health system (although, let’s be real, even though it’s labelled as a “Medicare levy” the money would probably still go to buying nuclear submarines).
Actually for me it’s quite good. Get like 1/3 back from dental. Then a bit back from gym fees. Optical is another one I use regularly and I get a massage a year. And most importantly ambulance cover just in case.
Granted one or two of them I would have skipped if I wasn’t paying private health (optical and massage).
At the higher salaries if people didn’t want to pay the Medicare surcharge and having to buy junk policies they can funnel their discretionary income into investments, the costs of the investments can be negatively geared so you can earn for example a million dollars and only pay 90000 taxable income worth of tax (an extreme example I know). ASX, property, into the business etc. where you reduce your taxable income in exchange for gaining (investable) assets.
