subsidy model that doesn't subsidise private

I think the only way this would make sense in my view is making gap fees illegal. But because Medicare hasn't been properly indexed, this also would likely mean we'd see even fewer bulk billing practices. Even then, we shouldn't incentivise medical coverage on how much money doctors can expect to make because of demographics in the area.

It makes vastly more sense (in my view) to simply provide the services where people are on an as-needed basis similar to so many other public services (like schools), and just pay the doctors and other medical staff a competitive salary.

we are a very conservative country

We'll have to agree to disagree on this. It's a miracle we have a centre government (Labor) with the right-wing media dominance in this country. But we do bring back centre left governments because the character of the country is about people receiving a "fair go" which is the opposite of conservative values.

We are a country founded in-part on the labour movement, we have just lost our way over the last couple of decades (on labour, other issues we've improved obviously) and while there are conservative areas, I don't really think as a nation we're terribly conservative compared to many other countries.

We have to get back to making people the priority, not profits.

I agree very much

Profit itself isn't the issue imo, profit above all is.

I do not agree. Profit motive is the issue, to some degree, in practically all areas of our economy. Profit, in any form, is causing problems in our healthcare. Having practice owners who have the capital to own a practice, taking a percentage for all appointments from the doctors who work there, serves the community in no shape or form.

In the long run, it would be cheaper for us to just own the practice ourselves via the government and employ the staff directly. The profit we need to pay goes into the practice owner's pocket and does nothing for actually providing the service. People may try to argue this is the return they deserve for putting in the investment of owning the practice, but this only holds true because we have relinquished the responsibility of investment. Either way, the investment needs to come from somewhere. It's just way cheaper in the long run if it comes from our taxes, rather than in the form of markups for profit.

The profit motive means doctors are incentivised to charge as much as possible while still attracting enough patients. This is market forces and doesn't lead to an optimal outcomes. The profit motive needs to be removed entirely, because what, we're going to ask individuals to work against their own best interest?

Psychologists got way, way more expensive during COVID: because they could. This is the profit motive.

We need to make the public service larger and employee essential services directly.

Pay them well, and we'll all be better off (well, except for the practice owners)

This is my opinion, but I think many of us can agree that over the last 40 years the personal economic situation of us all had become worse. And it's not that we couldn't afford, as a country, to go back to government provided services.

It just would make the powers that be less money. And we can't have that, can we.