From this week, private health insurers are unable to provide rebates for 16 natural therapies. But these changes may have unintended consequences.
Academic rigor, journalistic flair
Articles on Private health insurance
Displaying 1 - 20 of 48 articles
A raft of changes to private health insurance in Australia will come into effect on April 1. Here's what you need to know.
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.
Subsidies for private health insurance premiums cost the government over A$6 billion a year. Is it time to scrap the rebate and redirect these funds elsewhere in the health system?
Australians are waiting too long for elective surgery, dental care and treatment for mental health. It's no wonder health is a vote-changer.
Private health insurance premiums will rise from April 1, leaving consumers wondering if they should give it up or downgrade to save money.
Private health insurance premiums are set to rise again. These 14 charts (well, technically 10 charts and four tables) look at some of the reasons why health insurance premiums keep going up and up.
We are paying more for our health insurance because we are using it more. No crude, short-term measures to restrict premium growth will deal with this fact.
Private health insurance is meant to take pressure off the public system. But with exclusionary policies, people are increasingly avoiding the levies and using the public system anyway.
Recently announced changes to private health insurance reinforce the primacy of hospitals for mental health issues. This is despite many inquiries recommending better community mental-health care.
The government's latest changes to private health insurance won't affect the cost of premiums.
Whether a 10% discount is enough to increase health insurance take-up by young people, many of whom are in precarious employment arrangements or unemployed, is a question for the marketeers.
Private patients who stay in hospital for costly rehab after major knee surgery recover just as fast as people who go home and have physiotherapy. So, why pay more?
The AMA are pushing for simplified insurance packages that would see gold, silver and bronze products offered. This won't solve the overall problem with private health insurance.
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 30% subsidy for private health insurance was predicted to be a bad and costly policy many years ago. And 20 years later, the only thing that's changed is the $6 billion-plus hole in the budget.
For the first time in 15 years, as premiums and complaints rise, the proportion of the population with private health insurance is declining.
What did the Coalition promise during the campaign in 11 key policy areas, from health to infrastructure to jobs?
Health is always a key factor in deciding which way to vote. So what have the major parties promised in health? And what could these changes mean for consumers?
A key goal of the Affordable Care Act was to lower health care costs, but first we have to help individuals make better choices.
Top contributors
-
Professor, Allied Health Research, Melbourne Health, La Trobe University
-
Lecturer, Public Sector Finance, University of Canberra
-
Stephen Duckett is a Friend of The Conversation.
Director, Health Program, Grattan Institute
-
Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Social Research in Health, UNSW
-
Senior Lecturer, School of Economics, University of Adelaide
-
Professor of Health Economics, University of Technology Sydney
-
Adjunct Associate Professor, Menzies Centre for Health Policy, University of Sydney
-
Peter Sivey is a Friend of The Conversation.
Associate Professor, School of Economics, Finance and Marketing, RMIT University
-
Emeritus Professor, Menzies Centre for Health Policy, University of Sydney
-
Associate Professor of Public Health, University of Technology Sydney
-
Professor of Health Economics, Flinders University
-
Policy Head, Research Assets, Sax Institute; Co-Director, Australian Primary Health Care Research Institute, Australian National University
-
Fellow, Centre for Mental Health Research, Australian National University
-
Director of the Centre for Health Economics, Monash University
-
Adjunct Senior Lecturer, University of Western Australia
