Category: Health

Australian health would be much improved if the $11 billion subsidy for private health insurance was abolished and part of those funds allocated to universal dental care within Medicare.  
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The private health insurance industry is a parasite on the health system and the public purse. The government-funded rebate on private health insurance premiums goes to the insurers, not the health care providers, and allows the government almost no control over how its money is used to treat sickness and promote health.

If, for some reason unsupported by most of the evidence, the Government wishes to support private hospitals and private practitioners (as distinct from private health insurance companies), it would deliver itself, the public and patients a much better deal if it by-passed the useless middleman and negotiated with and paid private providers directly.   (more…)

In parliament, forty years ago on 27 September 1967, Gough Whitlam described the factors driving up the high cost of healthcare in Australia. The same vested interests drive up costs in Australia at the expense of the taxpayer and the community. John Menadue.  (more…)

Private health insurance is unfair and inefficient. It was because of this that the Whitlam Government established Medibank/Medicare.   (more…)

Fair access to health care is in the zeitgeist of European countries and Australia. The political sensitivities of this issue were demonstrated in the last election with the angst generated by the Labor Party’s “Mediscare” campaign. (more…)

The Medicare rebate freeze is one strategy in that agenda. Reducing the Federal Government’s share of public hospital funding is another. Reducing the support for public dental care is another. Promoting private health insurance in primary health care is another.

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Like the frog in hot water, Medicare’s privatisation by stealth can only result in an unfortunate end – despite the current government’s protestations of innocence.   (more…)

A low standard for granting patents can mean lengthy delays generic medicine availability. In one case this is shown to have cost taxpayers almost $A3 billion extra in Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme outlays. A solution is to grant patents only for inventions that embody a significant increase in what is known. (more…)

Country electorates have the most disadvantaged people, the poorest health and inferior health services.  But the National Party does very little about it.
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In the article from The Lancet, Arjun Suri points out that despite spending one tenth per capita of what the US spends on health, Cuba’s infant mortality rate is better than the US and that the two countries have equivalent life expectancy. (more…)

It has been a long road for peak medical organisations in Australia to publicly recognise and support the concept that Fee for Service payments (where medical services attract a Medicare rebate for attendances and/or procedures) may not always be the most appropriate remuneration methods in primary care. Now, both the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners and the AMA acknowledge that alternative payment systems have a place for patients with high healthcare needs because of special circumstances and/or chronic illness. This is a well-established concept, which has shown that primary health care services can establish viable business models based on a mixture of FFS for acute conditions (providing care for a sports injury in a young otherwise healthy person) and payments for annual cycles of care for people living with chronic medical conditions (eg diabetes requiring regular ongoing care from different providers). In New Zealand for example, a shift to up to 60-70% of practice income from blended payments, with the remainder from FFS has been well received from GPs there. (more…)