The benefits of a sugar tax go beyond mere health savings when obesity rates drop. Our new research predicts wider economic benefits due to more, healthier people in work.
After-hours home medical services are offered with bulk billing. But are they the best use of taxpayers’ money?
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While we must put in place effective measures to protect against the malicious use of personal data, not using the information collected about Australians comes at a cost.
A byproduct of Australia’s fractured federalism is that both the Commonwealth and state governments fund public hospitals.
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Leaked documents of a secret ‘taskforce’ to reform public hospital funding reveal some controversial proposals. So how are hospitals funded and why might this need changing?
The Medicare Guarantee Fund appears to be no more than an accounting trick.
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The fund is nothing more than a rebadging exercise in the hope people might think it is a new policy. And it’s being used to airbrush public hospitals out of the Medicare picture.
Rural primary health care, including patient evacuation services, general practice and mental health care deliver more than just health. There are economic benefits too.
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Australia is spending more than A$500 million a year too much for pharmaceuticals because of a little known loophole that allows drug companies to overcharge the government.
The latest snapshot of Australian health funding reveals who’s footing the bill, among other worrying health statistics.
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The latest Productivity Commission health report reveals some serious problems with out-of-pocket health expenses as well as disparities between Indigenous and non-Indigenous health.
The case for academic-industry collaboration.
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Academics are trained to answer important questions about health policy, and collaborating with industry on research can have a big impact.
Personal care attendants are responsible for residents’ personal hygiene – they’re not trained to undertake more complex assessments.
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Nursing home providers looking to cut costs are bypassing registered nurses and employing less-skilled personal care attendants (PCAs) who aren’t trained for the job.
Health care costs and rates of chronic disease are rising.
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For real reform to Medicare’s fee-for-service payments model, we need to look for more innovative solutions to how we pay for health care. These can be found in an unlikely place: the United States.
Some regions have had rates of preventable hospital admissions 50% above the state average for more than a decade.
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People ending up in hospital for diabetes, tooth decay, or other conditions that should be treatable or manageable out of hospital is a warning sign of system failure.
This approach will help concentrate efforts on evidence and value rather than ideologically based, slash-and-burn approaches.
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The government must do more to deliver a 21st-century health system – not just to improve its standing with voters but to meet the health needs of all Australians.
The debate about ageing needs to move away from claiming the sky will fall in because of the ageing of the population.
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Health policy was an important factor in the election outcome, but one of the most important issues in the health sector – the impact of out-of-pocket costs – was mostly ignored.
There is a strong political and economic case for the government to cut its support for private insurance and to restore Medicare to its original role.
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Scare campaigns only work if there is some anxiety to build on. Labor’s Medicare campaign plugged into a long history of Coalition ambivalence – or open hostility – towards Medicare.
The Labor Party is heading into the election with its Medicare banner hoisted high.
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The greater threats to our national public health system lie in the increasing role of consumer co-payments and the power of vested interests that stifle policy innovation in health.
New AMA president Michael Gannon is looking to ‘build bridges’ with what he expects will be a returned Turnbull government.
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The AMA has campaigned heavily on the Medicare rebate freeze, pointing out its potential impact on patient access if out-of-pocket costs were to increase.
Although the Coalition is largely associated with this issue, Labor first introduced the Medicare rebate freeze in 2013 as a ‘temporary’ measure.
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Labor will lift the rebate freeze from 2017, while under the Coalition, GPs will be paid the same amount for delivering health services in 2020 as they were in 2014. So what does this mean for patients?
Honorary Enterprise Professor, School of Population and Global Health, and Department of General Practice and Primary Care, The University of Melbourne