Australia’s illicit tobacco crisis has reopened doors long closed to Big Tobacco, as companies lobby for excise cuts and gain private access to political decision-makers. (more…)
Category: Health
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Paying private rates to shorten a public queue
Buying thousands of operations from private hospitals may cut waiting lists temporarily, but it does little to solve the workforce shortages constraining Victoria’s public surgical system. (more…)
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Brain cancer needs a national plan
Brain cancer survival remains poor and the burden on families is immense. Australia needs a coordinated 10-year national plan linking research, treatment, care and support. (more…)
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Annie Jacobsen’s Biological War is terrifying because it feels possible – Part One
Annie Jacobsen’s new book imagines a laboratory accident unleashing a weaponised plague across the world. Recent events in Siberia make its fictional scenario feel uncomfortably close to reality.
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Women are still missing from the medical evidence that shapes their care
Women can be failed by healthcare even when clinicians listen carefully, because bias in research design, participation and data analysis can distort the evidence that guides diagnosis and treatment. (more…)
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Aged care is turning the family home into an entry fee
Scarce aged care places increasingly favour families able to pay large accommodation deposits, drawing on housing wealth that may be the only debt-free asset shared across three generations. (more…)
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The growing gap between Australia’s policies on nicotine and reality
Australia’s tobacco and vaping policies have helped create a vast illicit market while governments continue to pour money into enforcement and neglect cheaper, more effective harm reduction. (more…)
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AI won’t save us if human intelligence keeps declining
As investment in artificial intelligence surges, brain health and cognitive skills are deteriorating. The future will depend not only on better machines, but on rebuilding the human intelligence needed to use them.
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The expensive business of making Australians wait for help
Delaying aged care, disability support and other public services may contain spending in one part of government, but the costs don’t disappear. They move to families, hospitals, review systems and the people left waiting for help. (more…)
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Australia’s flu season is running late – and cases are on the rise
Influenza cases are rising as Australia moves into spring, following an unusually quiet start to the year. Here’s what is driving the late surge, how this season differs from previous years and what it means for flu vaccination.
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Aged care report card: 4/10 – not good enough
Nearly a year into Australia’s aged care reforms, access remains difficult, waiting lists persist and costs are unaffordable for many, while flawed assessment and funding systems continue to undermine care. (more…)
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When menopause becomes a digital marketplace
Women seeking answers about menopause are entering a digital health landscape where intimate data, algorithmic predictions and aggressive marketing increasingly influence medical decisions, raising serious questions about privacy, autonomy and care. (more…)
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Private health insurance costs taxpayers $13 billion a year. What for?
Taxpayers spend about $13 billion a year supporting private health insurance, yet there is little evidence it relieves pressure on public hospitals or delivers fair value.
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Bird flu is spreading across Australia. What happens next?
H5N1 is spreading along southern Australia and is likely to move inland, reach vulnerable island colonies and infect more wildlife. Monitoring will be critical to understanding the damage. (more…)
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The NDIS was meant to build independence, but is it doing the opposite?
The NDIS was built to empower people with disability, but its funding, assessment and provider incentives risk reinforcing the very dependency the scheme was designed to overcome. (more…)
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New endometriosis tests offer hope – but the evidence isn’t there yet
Long delays in getting an endometriosis diagnosis have prompted much excitement about new saliva, gut and blood tests, but promising early results need further validation before they can be relied on in general practice. (more…)
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NDIS auditor bans shows a deeper problem with provider-paid audits
The NDIS has introduced new powers to ban auditors and consultants after more than 200 providers were allegedly registered using false or misleading information. The case raises concerns about a system in which providers choose and pay the auditors who assess them. (more…)
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Rising above cancer – community and care
Forty years ago, one woman in the NSW town of Queanbeyan saw a need and decided to act. Now 850 people a year receive cancer support from Rise Above.
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NDIS reform is putting the cuts before the safety net
Parliament has passed the largest contraction of the NDIS since its creation. The amendments improve the bill, but budgets will shrink and eligibility tighten before foundational supports are operating. (more…)
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NDIS reforms are coming. Who could lose support?
Proposed NDIS reforms would tighten eligibility, cut some participation funding and move hundreds of thousands out of the scheme, while replacement supports remain uncertain. (more…)
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Mental health is not a niche issue. It is the electorate
Australians are experiencing extraordinary levels of psychological distress while mental health services remain underfunded and overstretched. The political cost will be measured not just in health outcomes, but in deepening distrust of government. (more…)
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Medical care is being made a target of war
A decade after the UN demanded protection for medical care in war, attacks on hospitals, health workers, patients and humanitarian aid continue with devastating impunity.
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What drives someone to be a ‘Hardcore Harry’?
Extreme endurance events may look pointless from the outside, but they reveal a deeper cultural drive towards discipline, self-denial and achievement for its own sake. (more…)
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The hounding of Tony Fauci shows Trump’s ugly America
The attacks on Tony Fauci over COVID-19 advice, masks, gain-of-function research and rejected treatments are vindictive politics dressed up as accountability.
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Age bans will not fix social media’s harms
Social media age bans won’t make children safer; requiring social-media platforms to prove the safety of their products will. (more…)
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Our poisoned chalice
Unsafe water already kills millions, while scarcity, PFAS, endocrine disruptors, industrial waste and AI’s thirst are turning clean water into a global crisis. (more…)
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Trachoma finally on the way out in Australia
Fred Hollows’ trachoma program exposed appalling Aboriginal health conditions and helped drive the growth of community-controlled health services. (more…)
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Strengthening Medicare shouldn’t ignore the Australians who rely on private health cover
Before cutting private health insurance rebates, the government should hear older Australians who rely on cover as a safeguard against delay, uncertainty and worsening health. (more…)
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Future pharmacy should put patients and taxpayers first
A new report from The Grattan Institute recommends that responsibility for setting pharmacy remuneration be shifted to the Independent Health and Aged Care Pricing Authority, in order to ensure Australians can safely and easily access essential medicines. (more…)
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The unfairness we’ve learned to walk past
Allowing homelessness to continue is a choice. Ending it must become one too. (more…)