For real reform to Medicare’s fee-for-service payments model, we need to look for more innovative solutions to how we pay for health care. These can be found in an unlikely place: the United States.
Articles on Health economics
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People ending up in hospital for diabetes, tooth decay, or other conditions that should be treatable or manageable out of hospital is a warning sign of system failure.
The government must do more to deliver a 21st-century health system – not just to improve its standing with voters but to meet the health needs of all Australians.
The ageing population is only a relatively small contributor to the growth in hospital admissions.
Health policy was an important factor in the election outcome, but one of the most important issues in the health sector – the impact of out-of-pocket costs – was mostly ignored.
The Turnbull government must reconcile the political sensitivity of Medicare and the need for fiscal discipline.
Scare campaigns only work if there is some anxiety to build on. Labor’s Medicare campaign plugged into a long history of Coalition ambivalence – or open hostility – towards Medicare.
The greater threats to our national public health system lie in the increasing role of consumer co-payments and the power of vested interests that stifle policy innovation in health.
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.
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?
We need to focus on keeping people out of hospital by providing better co-ordinated and integrated care.
States will receive an additional A$2.9 billion from July 2017 to June 2020, with growth in Commonwealth funding capped at 6.5%. The Conversation’s experts respond.
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.
Fixing the hospital system is not just a matter of more funding. Hospitals need to work smarter, not harder.
There is substantial variation in the safety and quality of care provided in Australian hospitals. The data can tell us why.
Around a quarter of people with private health insurance still choose to use the public system. Why?
For many patients, hospital may not be the best place for their care.
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.
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.
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?
Top contributors
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Honorary Enterprise Professor, School of Population and Global Health, and Department of General Practice and Primary Care, The University of Melbourne
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Program Director, Health and Aged Care, Grattan Institute
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Professor of Health Economics and Director, Centre for Health Economics, Monash Business School, Monash University
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Professor of Health Economics, The University of Melbourne
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Professor and Director, Macquarie University Centre for the Health Economy, Macquarie University
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Adjunct Associate Professor, Menzies Centre for Health Policy and Economics, University of Sydney
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Reader in Health Economics, Centre for Health Economics, University of York
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Professor of Health Economics, Flinders University
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Professor of Health Economics and Director, Centre for Health Economics Research and Evaluation, University of Technology Sydney
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Health economist, University of Sydney
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Professor, Public Service Research, UNSW Sydney
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Jim Gillespie is a Friend of The Conversation.
Associate Professor in Health Policy, Leeder Centre for Health Policy, Economics and Data & Sydney School of Public Health, University of Sydney
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Senior Policy Adviser, National Rural Health Alliance; Adjunct Lecturer, University of Sydney
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Lecturer, Public Sector Finance, University of Canberra
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Emeritus Professor, Menzies Centre for Health Policy, University of Sydney
