Global Snapshots: Australia - sun, spiders, and snakes

It would be nice to believe that Australian primary care involved sitting by Lassiter's Lake drinking milk shakes and that all emergency medicine was done by The Flying Doctors. But there is more to Australia's health system than is sometimes portrayed in soap operas. Australia has all the yardsticks of a well established Western medical system--well equipped hospitals, high standards of staffing, and good health indicators.1 Most health care is supplied by the government through Medicare--a national health insurance scheme available to all …