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?
States will receive an additional A$2.9 billion from July 2017 to June 2020, with growth in Commonwealth funding capped at 6.5%. The Conversation’s experts respond.
The Commonwealth wants to partially reverse the cuts it made to public hospital funding in the 2014 budget. But the deal has some unwelcome strings attached.
Jane Hall, University of Technology Sydney et Kees Van Gool, University of Technology Sydney
Health-care costs are rising, driven by expensive developments in treatments, more demanding populations and rising national wealth. We need to change the financing system to meet this challenge.
Waiting for emergency care, specialist appointments and “elective” procedures is not only inconvenient and frustrating, it can also be painful and detrimental to your health and well-being.
Why is it so difficult to find out exactly how much it’s going to cost to have that suspicious mole removed or to be admitted to hospital for that colonoscopy or hip replacement?
In a time of growing populations, hospitals must guarantee access, ensure quality, minimise the chances of anything going wrong, and do it all within the available budget. So they need to change.
Fron Jackson-Webb, The Conversation et Wes Mountain, The Conversation
What are the most common reasons for going to hospital? What can go wrong? What’s behind the state-Commonwealth funding fight? Our at-a-glance infographic has the answers.
This was the year of the health review – mental health care, Medicare, private health insurance, the pharmacy industry … and the list goes on. But how much movement was there on policy?
The Coalition tried to justify its failed GP co-payment as an attempt to rein in consumers, who were driving the increase in Medicare costs. Turns out government policy was mostly to blame.
Chronic diseases are responsible for nine out of ten deaths in Australia, and for much of the public health expenditure that’s causing governments so much concern.
Sasha Petrova, The Conversation et Nicola McCaskill, The Conversation
Australians are picking up some of the slack of government belt-tightening by paying more for health, with experts concerned this could reduce the equity in Australia’s health system.
Honorary Enterprise Professor, School of Population and Global Health, and Department of General Practice and Primary Care, The University of Melbourne