Healthcare lessons from Australia: what can Michael Howard learn from John Howard?

The Australian prime minister, John Howard, has engineered a major expansion in private healthcare insurance and been re-elected. The electorally popular Medicare provides universal coverage for free public hospital treatment, out of hospital medical services, and pharmaceuticals. Private insurance is limited to private treatment in hospital and some ancillary services, including dental care. Yet the two decade trend of falling insurance cover has been reversed, and over three years the proportion of the population insured grew from 30% to 45%. What can the leader of the British opposition, Michael Howard, and other European conservatives learn from an Australian colleague who has deliberately sought to enhance the role of the private sector?