In my mid-20s I worked as a benefit-cost analyst for Kaiser Foundation Health Plan in Los Angeles. The unit was named Benefit-Cost, not Cost-Benefit, intentionally putting the emphasis on benefit.

One of my roles was planning radiotherapy services for over a million people who, at that time, were treated in a number of hospitals spread over Los Angeles County. When would a new radiotherapy unit be required based on the expected rates of cancer in the population served, and where should that facility be placed? 

In other words, careful planning was considered essential to best meet the needs of the population. This does not always appear to be the way services presently are planned here in Australia.

With the Robodebt scandal, we witnessed the consequences of terrible government policy and contempt for people’s welfare, not to mention the law, that has literally destroyed lives and increased human suffering.