The plan to withhold payments of child-care and family tax benefits for unvaccinated children could cost non-compliant parents up to A$15,000 a year. But is it ethical to punish parents?
The government is effectively undermining the power of Medicare as a single payer and the role of Medicare as a universal provider.
Peter Boyle/AAP
In the final instalment of our series, Lesley Russell asks whether Australians need private health insurance, and what a two-tiered systems means for quality, access and equity.
Doctors will be asking: am I needed here?
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Plaid Cyrmu’s manifesto promises greater expenditure, but at what cost?
Medicare and private health insurance partly overlap for hospital entitlements. But nobody can purchase full coverage for health-care costs.
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Private insurance, by its very nature, suppresses price signals and encourages over-servicing and cost escalation.
The relationship between private health insurance and Medicare has been a problem since the Whitlam government introduced universal health care.
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Some people balk at the cost of private insurance – especially the relatively young and healthy – because they don’t see the value of it when they are already covered under Medicare.
The half of Australians who have private health insurance will be face higher bills from Wednesday, as insurance premiums increase by an industry average of 6.18%.
Dental care is the most-used private health insurance ancillary service.
Peter Kyikos/AAP
What happens when you bring a state health minister face-to-face with her two main challengers, fronting a roomful of health experts, without any TV cameras to leap on any “gaffes” or stumbles?
Very high GP attenders cost Medicare an average of A$3,202 in 2012-13, compared to an Australian average of A$690.
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As well as being responsible for a large share of total costs, people who visit the GP more often are more likely to live in the most disadvantaged areas, and to report being in poor health.
Discussions about Medicare’s sustainability under the Abbott government have only concerned how much we spend on the health sector.
AAP/Joel Carrett
Jane Hall, University of Technology Sydney and Kees Van Gool, University of Technology Sydney
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Fill your boots. Fruit and veg of the unprocessed variety.
Garry Knight
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Non-concession patients may end up paying a A$30 to A$40 co-payment, not a A$5 one.
Pete/Shutterstock
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We need a plan to provide patients with the right care at the right place in the right time.
AAP/Alan Porritt
As the 2015 parliamentary year approaches, The Conversation is examining five key policy areas that have a new minister in charge: health, immigration, defence, social services and science. Today we begin…
Things are looking up for Queensland health in a number of areas, including the repair of a failed payroll system for health staff and increasing local management of services.
AAP Image/Dan Peled
It’s a sign of how much has changed in a few years that health has barely featured in the Queensland election campaign, despite being one of the issues that voters still say they care most about. That…
A blueprint for Medicare reform must include cost control, but also support quality and equity.
Dave Hunt/AAP
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To understand public heath, you have to understand how the public lives.
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Many of today’s public health issues – diabetes, cancer, obesity, cardiovascular disease – are strongly associated with social inequalities. Literature from across the world shows that gaps in income…
Honorary Enterprise Professor, School of Population and Global Health, and Department of General Practice and Primary Care, The University of Melbourne