This year is crunch time for Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s health policies. The financing and policy changes from the Rudd-Gillard government are finally taking effect and the National Commission of Audit…
Medicare guarantees free public hospital care and funds a range of primary care and other health services.
Image from shutterstock.com
Medicare is Australia’s universal health scheme. It is a Commonwealth government program that guarantees all citizens (and some overseas visitors) access to a wide range of health services at little or…
Some Australians are struggling to get timely access to affordable health care.
AAP Image/Dave Hunt
Tomorrow marks an important Australian milestone: 30 years of Medicare and the guarantee of universal access to health care. Before Medicare, it was not that uncommon for people to avoid using health-care…
Some insurers are testing opportunities to expand their involvement in primary care.
AAP Image/Mick Tsikas
Prompted by the government’s Commission of Audit, health policy analysts have spent the first weeks of the year vigorously debating ways to rein in Australia’s rising health budget and to make the system…
An identical patient with an identical presenting symptom of ‘tension headache’ might lead to a thousand different discussions.
DIBP images
When we think of what defines a medical consultation, we quite reasonably think of the “presenting complaint”: the medical problem which the patient brings to the doctor. In movies, literature, common…
Co-payments are an unfair tool for reducing health costs.
Alex E. Proimos
As a GP, when I prescribe a drug, I need to know its likely benefits and risks, and I need to base my decision-making on the best available evidence. I’d like to think the same principle applies to the…
Innovative health policy solutions could help the health budget and improve patients’ health.
Image from shutterstock.com
Consensus and evidence suggests a compulsory co-payment of A$6 for a visit to the general practitioner will reduce population health but might save some money. Can we not try a bit harder and think of…
The financial pain of a A$6 co-payment won’t increase health literacy or self-management.
Image from shutterstock.com
Incremental creep and massive holes in universal health coverage (think dental care) have left many Australians questioning whether there’s any such thing as “free health care”. One recent study estimated…
Countries relying on private health insurance, such as the United States, pay far more for health care.
Kate Ter Haar
We have come to see private health insurance as an essential part of the national health funding mix, but it’s actually quite a costly way to fund health care. A well-designed system with a single national…
In a new book, former Labor leader Mark Latham and other prominent party figures attempt to diagnose the party’s malaise.
AAP/Alan Porritt
It is a sign of Labor’s crisis that Mark Latham, the party’s former parliamentary leader, has been re-admitted to polite centre-Left company. For his book Not Dead Yet: What Future for Labor?, Latham has…
“The bulk-billing rates are at historic highs now. Visits to GPs are 82% bulk-billed. When Tony Abbott was minister it was 67%.” Health minister Tanya Plibersek, National Press Club Health Debate, 27 August…
The health budget isn’t limitless: decisions have to be made about to how to allocate funding between competing choices.
AAP/Dave Hunt
In the sixth part of our series Health Rationing, Mark Mackay examines the latest think tank blueprint to rein in Australia’s rising health costs. But he warns that before funding models are adjusted…
Recent surveys show many Australians have not filled a prescription because of cost.
Robert S. Donovan
A growing number of people globally live with chronic illness. By the time they reach 65, most Australians have at least one chronic condition and 80% have three or more. Pharmaceutical treatment is often…
The Medicare Safety Net is riddled with costly flaws, making the system prone to misuse and manipulation.
AAP
Medicare is one of the cornerstones of the Australian health care system, but there are serious questions about some aspects of the program. Over time, government reforms have created some perverse incentives…
One of the problems with Medicare is that it has become locked in place.
AAP
The debate about Medicare has received a new focus with comments from Dr Tony Webber, the former director of the Professional Services Review – the body that regulates success to Medicare and Pharmaceutical…
Incentives paid by the government have failed to provide the changes needed to shore up Medicare for the future.
AAP
Health Minister Nicola Roxon recently floated the idea that it might be time to revamp Medicare. Previous attempts have resulted in band-aid efforts to cover policy failures that contribute to out-of-pocket…
Honorary Enterprise Professor, School of Population and Global Health, and Department of General Practice and Primary Care, The University of Melbourne