Tom Minear: Joe Biden’s free Covid tests dent Australia’s Medicare exceptionalism

While Anthony Albanese cut back Covid funding, Joe Biden offered free tests for all, writes Tom Minear.

It may be considered the capital of the world, but living in New York City, some creature comforts are lacking for an Australian expat.

A loaf of bread that isn’t packed with sugar. A chicken parmigiana with chips and salad, not a side of pasta. A craft brew on tap that isn’t an IPA – and, for that matter, a pub with an actual beer garden.

Most Australians in the Big Apple would add decent coffee and Vegemite to this list. Fortunately, I don’t drink the former, and the latter is usually hiding on the shelf of a grocery store near my apartment. Even at $20 for a 220g jar, it’s worth every cent.

Had I been able to vote in last month’s US midterm elections, I would have despaired at the lack of democracy sausages. (It turns out I would have had the same hankering had I been home for the Victorian election, as a school in my electorate sold oysters instead.)

Democracy sausages are not part of America’s election traditions. Picture: Mark Stewart

That said, watching the midterms up close, my appreciation only grew for perhaps our most undervalued institutions: the Australian Electoral Commission.

The roots of American election denialism, most alarmingly propagated by Donald Trump, are inextricably tied to the lack of an independent body administering elections.

Electorate boundaries are instead drawn by political operatives to advantage their parties, which has left just one in five congressional seats as competitive races, and Ohio’s 4th district shaped like someone drew a duck on the map.

If it acts like a duck, looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it probably is a duck. Or maybe it's just Ohio's Fourth Congressional District. pic.twitter.com/tSF2G5o2iB

— America Votes (@AmericaVotes) September 21, 2021

Each state also has its own voting rules often overseen by elected politicians, which increases confusion and breeds distrust. Most bizarrely, many Republicans treat early voting and postal ballots like they are corrupt tricks rather than obvious norms.

It is sadly little wonder millions of Americans believe Trump’s big lie about his 2020 defeat. Fortunately, the impartiality of the AEC means Australian politicians very rarely try the same tactics, and those who do are given short shrift.

The lack of an independent electoral commission in the US fuelled Donald Trump’s lies about the 2020 result. Picture: Chip Somodevilla (Getty Images/AFP)

Living in the US, I have also come to miss – and here is something I never thought I would write – the efficiency of Australia’s government services.

On the day I arrived in New York, I visited a government office to apply for a social security number, without which you cannot pay taxes or apply for benefits. I was told my card would arrive in the mail within two to six weeks.

When it did not arrive, it took several lengthy calls to figure out immigration officials were yet to tick off my application. The fact they had approved my work visa was seemingly irrelevant to my dutiful effort to pay taxes.

It took more calls and a trip back to the office to learn my card was eventually posted out not once, but twice, and failed to show up both times. A third one is now allegedly on the way.

It was during this saga that I saw Government Services Minister Bill Shorten plugging Australia’s new myGov app, replacing the “you have a new message in your myGov inbox” emails. Even those dreaded messages seemed more appealing than relying on snail mail.

Goodbye ‘new myGov inbox message’, hello new myGov app

Download it here: https://t.co/Qs9nLHA396pic.twitter.com/7InR5QbqSM

— Bill Shorten (@billshortenmp) December 5, 2022

Indeed, by the time my social security number arrives, I will have to start paying taxes by writing a cheque and putting it in the post – two things I never had to do in Australia.

An entertaining yet alarming piece in the Washington Post recently explained why: the American tax office still relies on letters and faxes, and machines so old that replacement parts have to be made to order. At its Texas facility, the cafeteria tables have been turned into shelves for thousands and thousands of paper tax returns.

These idiosyncrasies of life in the US are all ultimately easily overcome. Among Australian expats, it is the prospect of having to navigate the American healthcare system that often causes the most concern. You quickly realise how you have taken the green card in your wallet for granted without a universal, accessible and publicly funded safety net.

Last week, however, Australia’s Medicare exceptionalism took an unexpected dent when the Albanese and Biden governments unveiled plans to tackle summer and winter Covid waves.

Anthony Albanese and Joe Biden both released their latest Covid plans last week. Picture: Supplied

Anthony Albanese ended the 50-50 funding split with the states, halved the number of subsidised psychologist appointments and further restricted access to PCR tests, having already canned the free rapid tests he demanded the former government introduce.

Somehow this passed with relatively little outrage, something Albanese would not have allowed to happen had Scott Morrison made those decisions.

At the same time, Joe Biden announced free rapid tests for all households. I decided to put in an order, assuming the website would crash or the postal service would be overwhelmed.

But my request was approved within 20 seconds, and four days later, a package of four tests was delivered while I was writing this column. Only in America, apparently.

Originally published as Tom Minear: Joe Biden’s free Covid tests dent Australia’s Medicare exceptionalism