Was Labor’s shadow health minister Catherine King, pictured here with shadow attorney-general Mark Dreyfus, right about cuts to bulk-billing payments?
Dan Himbrechts/AAP
Labor’s shadow health minister Catherine King, said that the government has “cut bulk-billing payments for pathology and diagnostic imaging to make patients pay more”. Is that right?
Medicare’s IT systems haven’t been carefully planned, they’re the product of an evolution of government policy.
Dave Hunt/AAP
When a system is as complex as that of Medicare’s, it is going to be extremely expensive to rebuild and it is not possible to simply “retrofit” an off-the-shelf product from another company.
New AMA president Michael Gannon is looking to ‘build bridges’ with what he expects will be a returned Turnbull government.
Mick Tsikas/AAP
The AMA has campaigned heavily on the Medicare rebate freeze, pointing out its potential impact on patient access if out-of-pocket costs were to increase.
Although the Coalition is largely associated with this issue, Labor first introduced the Medicare rebate freeze in 2013 as a ‘temporary’ measure.
AAP/Joel Carrett
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?
There have been number of short-lived Commonwealth funding programs for dental care in the past.
AAP Image/Mick Tsikas
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.
The health sector can learn from other industries that turn to operations research to fix everyday challenges.
Anna Jurkovska/Shutterstock
Around a quarter of people with private health insurance still choose to use the public system. Why?
The Commonwealth is telling the states to fix their own hospital budget problems, as though state governments can simply find savings from other areas.
MARCELODLT/Shutterstock
Jane Hall, University of Technology Sydney and 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.
Clinicians prioritise patients based on the urgency of their treatment. But there’s more to it than that.
painter dude/Flickr
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.
Patients often rely on their GP to make the choice of specialist for them through the referral process with little or no discussion of prices.
gtfour/Shutterstock
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?
The solution is not necessarily more of the same, or more funding.
wandee007/Shutterstock
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.
The 2016 increases range from 3.8% for the Doctor’s Health Fund, to just under 9% for CUA health Fund.
thipjang/Shutterstock
Price in health care is a squishy concept. Different words relating to cost – charge, price and out-of-pocket cost – all have different meanings.
A snapshot of 2015: health reviews, Health Check series, thalidomide series, Medicare versus private health insurance.
AAP; Shutterstock; Julian Smith/; Dave Hunt/AAP
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?
Pressure point. Smarter GP surgeries can lighten the burden on the rest of the NHS.
World Bank Photo Collection
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.
Honorary Enterprise Professor, School of Population and Global Health, and Department of General Practice and Primary Care, The University of Melbourne