A shortage of qualified nursing staff and rising health costs have led to an increase in the employment of unregulated nursing workers. In 2012, the average weekly salary for full-time nursing professionals…
Progress on GP super clinics is mixed, but it would be a mistake to condemn the program without a closer evaluation.
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The former Labor government’s GP Super Clinics Program has come in for a bashing. The Coalition has derided it as “a total waste of money” and News Corp has dubbed it a “dangerous health care experiment…
It passes the ‘milk bar test’ but once you look behind it, big risks emerge.
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Like a movie zombie, a policy idea that should have died has arisen from the dead and is likely to feature as a cost-savings measure in next month’s budget. The idea is simple: most GP patients should…
With the right training and supervision, assistants could safely take on 15% of nurses’ workloads.
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Employees are the public hospital system’s most valuable resource, and its biggest cost. Wages account for nearly 70% of recurrent hospital spending. To keep hospital care affordable in a time of rising…
One person’s rationing may be another’s priority setting.
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In the lead-up to the May budget, the seemingly inexorable rise in health spending has unleashed a “sustainability panic”: rhetoric that health system costs are out of control and drastic measures are…
There is no publicly available, solid evidence to show that such outsourcing generates savings for governments. But it could.
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In the lead-up to the budget on May 13, the Tony Abbott government is looking for ways to make the health dollar go further. In 2011-12 the federal government spent A$14.4 billion on public and private…
Investors who remember former floats of government entities might be excited by the prospect of a Medibank Private IPO.
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The proposed sale of Medibank Private is not popular, but as I wrote last year, and as Finance Minister Mathias Cormann points out, it’s hard to find public policy grounds to justify ongoing public ownership…
The United States, which relies heavily on private health insurance, spends 18% of its GDP on health care, well above the OECD average of 9%.
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Ahead of the May budget, health minister Peter Dutton has said he wants to start “a national conversation about modernising and strengthening Medicare”. A national conversation would be welcome, but is…
‘Going private’ may speed up your time to treatment, but Medicare shouldn’t pick up the tab.
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The polls this week suggest half of Australians think the Abbott government should reduce the cost of Medicare. My solution? Claw back some of the A$9 billion the government pays to private hospitals…
Finding ways to deliver high-quality care at an affordable cost to the nation is just as important as finding cures for diseases.
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It seems that almost every politician, health economist, policy expert and health-care worker has a different take on the state of the nation’s health system and ways to make it more sustainable. But notably…
The cost of operations varies from hospital to hospital but a higher price doesn’t equal better care.
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Public hospital spending has been the single fastest-growing area of government spending over the past decade. As governments, policymakers and economists put health spending under the microscope, it’s…
Rather than looking back, we need to decide on the future foundations of Australia’s health system.
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Treasurer Joe Hockey and health minister Peter Dutton have been in overdrive this past week lowering expectations for the May budget and reminding Australians that its 30-year-old Medicare system is “unsustainable…
Government spending is already targeted toward poorer households.
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Should the rich pay more for their health care? This question has raised its ugly head again after health minister Peter Dutton announced the Coalition government was considering more user-pays options…
Four of the five members of the Commission of Audit during a Senate hearing at Parliament House in January.
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The Senate Select Committee into the Commission of Audit is holding its third Hearing in Canberra today. Witnesses include the Consumers Health Forum and Australian Health and Hospitals Association, so…
Big announcements aren’t the answer – the health system needs a long-term plan.
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This year is crunch time for Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s health policies. The financing and policy changes from the Rudd-Gillard government are finally taking effect and the National Commission of Audit…
Medicare guarantees free public hospital care and funds a range of primary care and other health services.
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Medicare is Australia’s universal health scheme. It is a Commonwealth government program that guarantees all citizens (and some overseas visitors) access to a wide range of health services at little or…
Some Australians are struggling to get timely access to affordable health care.
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Tomorrow marks an important Australian milestone: 30 years of Medicare and the guarantee of universal access to health care. Before Medicare, it was not that uncommon for people to avoid using health-care…
Some insurers are testing opportunities to expand their involvement in primary care.
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Prompted by the government’s Commission of Audit, health policy analysts have spent the first weeks of the year vigorously debating ways to rein in Australia’s rising health budget and to make the system…
Medicare Locals plan for better, tailored health services by drawing on local knowledge.
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Primary health care in Australia is a messy beast, with many heads and all sorts of body parts. But it’s centrally important because it plays a major role in achieving public health outcomes, such as better…
An identical patient with an identical presenting symptom of ‘tension headache’ might lead to a thousand different discussions.
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When we think of what defines a medical consultation, we quite reasonably think of the “presenting complaint”: the medical problem which the patient brings to the doctor. In movies, literature, common…
Honorary Enterprise Professor, School of Population and Global Health, and Department of General Practice and Primary Care, The University of Melbourne