Singapore will start charging people who choose not to be vaccinated for any COVID-related hospital care. While Australia’s hospitals are also under pressure, we shouldn’t follow suit.
It’s human nature to unconsciously rely on quick rules to help make spur-of-the-moment decisions. New research finds physicians use these shortcuts, too, which can be bad news for some patients.
Compared to ten similar countries, Australia does well on equity and health care outcomes. But it still has a way to go on access and how well the health system fits together.
NSW needs to mandate masks outdoors, provide adequate financial support, set up a ‘ring of steel’, use rapid tests for essential workers, and ensure cases not in full isolation get to zero, among others.
A sustainable private health insurance system requires enough young, healthy people paying premiums and not making claims. But government policies haven’t achieved this. Here’s what to try instead.
Peter Martin, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University
The economists who support the use of social distancing measures to slow the spread of COVID-19 are not only in the majority, they are also more certain of their opinions than those who do not.
Each week that we keep bars and restaurants closed will save a mere at handful of lives at an outsized cost per life year saved of more than $12 million.
Leading Australian economists in four countries have signed an open letter calling on the national cabinet to think carefully before easing restrictions ‘for the sake of 'the economy’.
Elective surgeries have been halted as part of the health system’s response to coronavirus. But many are unnecessary and shouldn’t be rescheduled after the pandemic ends.
New private health insurance data show young people are continuing to drop their cover. But the industry’s argument a youth exodus will put pressure on public hospitals isn’t necessarily right.
Running, jumping, tackling, not to mention handling the ball, means Aussie Rules players risk injuries to their hands and wrists serious enough to send them to the emergency department.
Honorary Enterprise Professor, School of Population and Global Health, and Department of General Practice and Primary Care, The University of Melbourne