Dear Greg in Oz:

The most basic car insurance in the US is liability insurance, which includes BOTH third party personal injury and third party property insurance. As you said, only third party personal injury insurance is compulsory in Australia while third party property insurance is optional. I just don't understand why third party property insurance is optional in Australia, because it does not make any sense at all. If some guy is very poor, has only the mandatory third party personal insurance, and causes a car accident, then how he will be able to pay for the damage to third party property (whose value may be very high)? If you have to pay for both third party personal injury and property insurance, your premium would be 2 x 350 = 700 per year (or maybe slightly less) for each of your car. Here in California, my total liability insurance payment for 2 cars (1984 MB 300SD and 1994 MB c220) is $615 (after a 5% discount as employee benefit thanks to my company's deal with the insurance company). Remember that liability insurance = third party personal injury insurance + third party property insurance. BTW, I'm 30 and have never had any ticket. Insurance rates for guys <=25 will be definitely higher.
As for comprehensive coverage insurance, the rate is usually 2x that of liability insurance, even though it will be even higher for very expensive cars, sports car or SUVs.

Health care is basically free for many people in Australia, so car insurance companies in Australia may not have to pay much for third party personal injury. If health care cost is as expensive as in the US, I'm sure Australian car insurance companies will charge a much higher premium for JUST the compulsory third party personal injury insurance. Paying for third party personal injury in car accidents is a nightmare for car insurance companies here. Morever, many chiropractors and lawyers are frauds trying to conspire to fleece car insurance companies as much as possible.

I don't want to speak "evil" of Australia, but I have to admit that living cost in Australia is quite high compared to that in the US, after taking into account the salary rates for various professions.
I have many relatives in Sydney and Melbourne and have been to Australia twice. What I was able to observe was that ALMOST everything in Australia is at least twice as expensive as in the US, including basic stuff such as food, clothing and gasoline (petrol). Consumer electronics (TV, CD/DVD, Digital Camera/Camcorders etc...) and computer equipments may be even 3x to 5x more expensive (I don't think exchange rate should be taken into account here). Regarding salary rates, a software/hardware engineer in the US may make US$100K per year while a similar one gets only AU$70-80K per year for the same type of job responsibility. AFAIK, 4 litres of petrol (1.05 Gallon) costs about AU$3.50 on average, and it's currently AU$3.85 per 4 litres in Sydney. In San Jose CA, the gasoline price is currently about $US1.55 per gallon (cheaper in many other states.)

As a side note, I had seen that most people in Australia have a cell phone (called "mobile phone" in Australia), and this did surprise me quite a bit, until I found out that phone companies (like Telstra etc..) in Australia actually "seduces" people into having a cell phone by offering service rates as low as AU$10 per month. Many high school kids there get cell phone service at this low rate, but the catch is that this AU$10 only gives them 30 minutes of calling! Any extra minute is about .90 to $1.0 ! I've heard that many parents in Australia have to pay AU$1000 or more just for the cell phone service of their kid. In California, I have seen recent ads for cell phone services at US$35 per month but with UNLIMITED ANYTIME minutes of calling (and this includes unlimited long distance calls to anywhere in the US). My wife's older brother is a lawyer in Australia, and he and his wife have kept complaining about having to spend too much money for cell phone service there!

Australia is a nice and beautiful country, but I do not want to live there unless I get a lottery jackpot and become a millionaire :-)

The major thing that I don't like about the US is that doctors/dentists charge ridicuously high rates for their services, sometimes some 5 minute exam costs US$300. What the heck?

The wife of one of my friends has just graduated from dentistry school (USC) 2 months ago, and she's now making US$800 per DAY, and she wants to work 7 days per week! Oh well, I married a poor wife so I'm kind of poor too :-)

My old emeritus physics professor (PhD) got only $70K per year ...

In the US, you can either be very rich or very poor. But the best thing is that the US is also the land of big opportunities for everyone, especially people who will try their best.

Best regards,

Eric