IVF and the businesses that spring up alongside it are part of a multi-billion dollar global market for fertility treatments.
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The story of how human eggs became an integral part of a multi-billion dollar global fertility industry starts in a unlikely place: the sex lives of farm animals.
The current rules seek to ensure most Australians have access to a pharmacy staffed by a highly skilled professional with a pharmacy degree.
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Only pharmacists can own a pharmacy and you can’t set one up within 1.5km of an existing one. But calls to loosen these rules could give health companies a green light to set up more chemist chains.
Many young people see private health insurance as an unnecessary expense.
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Young people continue to cancel their private health insurance despite discounts to entice them to stay. Instead, we should reduce their premiums based on their likelihood of needing health care.
Desperate families are increasingly turning to crowdfunding campaigns to raise tens of thousands of dollars for surgery and other medical expenses.
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Louisa Collins, QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute
It is perfectly legal for a doctor working in private practice to charge what they believe is fair and reasonable. But that doesn’t mean it’s OK to charge tens of thousands of dollars for a procedure.
The system is a complex mix of daily and refundable fees, base payments and means tested contributions.
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While the majority of aged care funding comes from government, residents also have to contribute. Here’s how the payment system works.
Labor has promised A$8 billion in new health expenditure, while the Coalition has focused on the difference new pharmaceuticals can make to individual Australians.
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Medicare is a vote-changer. The Coalition learnt this in the 2016 federal election campaign and has since guaranteed its commitment to the program. But that may not avert a Mediscare 2.0.
Labor has committed to increase bulk billing for a number of Medicare items for cancer care.
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Health has taken centre stage of the election campaign. Here’s what you need to know to make sense of the claims (and counter claims) of the major parties so far.
The Coalition’s record on health is patchy, at best. Meanwhile, Labor is already campaigning hard on Medicare.
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Seeking and making sense of specialist fees is an unfair burden to place on vulnerable patients. A website might be helpful for some – but health professionals need to be held to higher account.
The number of Medicare claims Australians make in a year doubled between 1984 and 2018.
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Jane Hall, University of Technology Sydney and Kees Van Gool, University of Technology Sydney
Paying doctors a fee for each service they provide isn’t delivering optimal value for the health dollar. Instead, we should pay doctors a lump sum to care for a patient’s medical problem over time.
Premium subsidies encourage Australians to take out and keep private health insurance.
Subsidies for private health insurance premiums cost the government over A$6 billion a year. Is it time to scrap the rebate and redirect these funds elsewhere in the health system?
The funding proposal is no fix for Australia’s health system but it could take some political pressure off the Coalition in the lead up to the 2019 federal election.
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The A$1.25 billion health funding boost isn’t based on any coherent policy direction. It’s designed to shore up support in marginal electorates.
There already exist some promising new antibiotic therapies, and more are in the pipeline. However, our economic model prevents researchers from moving them out onto the market.
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The end of effective antibiotics will be frightening. Life expectancy will fall dramatically and people of all ages will die from illnesses that we are used to treating with $10 worth of pills.
Health is the largest single component of state government expenditure.
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Yes, doctors’ fees should be transparent, but that requirement alone doesn’t go far enough to combat “bill shock”. Specialists should also be required to set fees that are “fair and reasonable”.
Honorary Enterprise Professor, School of Population and Global Health, and Department of General Practice and Primary Care, The University of Melbourne