alison, the way paying for medical treatment in the US sounds horrible. they should make it that chronically/terminally ill people shouldnt have to pay for hospital treament and they can get a discount on meds, and that the rich healthy people should be paying. unfortunately [as weird as that sounds] its the opposite in australia compared to the US. we all get free hospital treatment regardless of health and income. the reason why its unfortunate is because the system is being sucked dry and there is never any money left over to open up closed beds, pay for more nurses and pay for better technology. you could be a relatively healthy millionaire and if you go to a public hospital you dont pay a cent, all the poor workers just get taxed more or a whole ward gets closed.