@dasbrewer - by offering better facilities, faster service, friendlier doctors, and an overall vastly improved experience. Private healthcare also tends to offer certain services and medical treatments that the state medicare does not cover by default.There's also the thing about image and marketing. The government does not try to sell itself: It doesnt have any need to. This leaves the entire advertising and marketing arena open for the private healthcare companies who advertise themselves very aggressively:They have successfully created and maintained the image that private healthcare will always be superior to government healthcare, even tho in reality the government option is also quite professional and well equipped to deal with nearly all cases. This causes nearly anyone who can afford it to prefer investing in private healthcare over the government option.The overall perception is that if you can afford it, you're always better off with a private solution. Its called perception of value. And this is the main reason why private healthcare will never go away.