When you enter a public hospital, you are likely to be asked if you have private health insurance, and if you want to use it. This is what you need to consider.
The funding proposal is no fix for Australia’s health system but it could take some political pressure off the Coalition in the lead up to the 2019 federal election.
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Each year, inspectors visit Australian hospitals. But they’re less like secret shoppers who identify flaws, and more like guests of a carefully orchestrated performance. This needs to change.
Women who have had a heart attack are less likely to be given an angiogram (a special X-ray to detect blockages of the heart), rehabilitation, or medication than men.
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Jane Hall, University of Technology Sydney and Rosalie Viney, University of Technology Sydney
Public hospitals in Australia are owned and operated by state (and territory) governments. So why does the Commonwealth government attract blame for lack of hospital funding?
The rate of complications varies markedly between hospitals.
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The reality of how the so-called penalties will work won’t match the rhetoric.
Information on patients’ experiences with their hospital care is often not reported back to public hospitals at unit or ward level.
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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.
Honorary Enterprise Professor, School of Population and Global Health, and Department of General Practice and Primary Care, The University of Melbourne