When my mother suffered a stroke a few months ago, my heart filled with dread at the thought of her lying at the mercy of our oft-maligned public health system. I needn’t have worried – the treatment she received was first class, and she’s on the way to a full recovery.

We’ve rightly come to expect top-shelf healthcare, and politicians meddle with it at their peril. But here’s the rub: universal health coverage is a socialist principle. And Australia despises socialism … doesn’t it?

Australia has long been a world leader in equality, but has recently lost its way.Credit: Getty

Australia spent much of the 20th century striving to be a fairer society. When the new millennium dawned, we arrived with work still to do, but were in better shape than almost every other country on the planet.

Medicare provided the best public health coverage in the world, according to the World Health Organisation. We ranked second in the United Nations Human Development Index, a combined measure of life expectancy, education and standard living. In Melbourne you could pick up the average house for $191,000. In Sydney it was $287,000. We didn’t realise how good we had it.

Despite setting a record for going the longest period in the world without a recession, we’ve since gone backwards on many measures. Economic equality has been in long-term decline and we’ve drifted further from being the land of the fair go.

Our housing prices are among the most expensive in the world, which explains why we have the second-highest level of household debt proportionate to GDP. Real wage growth has been lacklustre for more than a decade. Our Medicare still performs well but is no longer the world leader, having fallen to eighth on the World........

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