The deaths of huge numbers of the elderly in our care homes due to COVID-19 made clear the need to integrate our health and social care services. Here’s what needs to be done.
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.
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.
To get to stage C of the plan out of COVID, 80% of adults over 16 need to be vaccinated. But that equates to just under 65% of all Australians – too low to safely open international borders.
If we open up the international borders before enough of the population is vaccinated, hospitals could become overwhelmed and deaths would be unacceptably high.
Sex is not gender but research continues to treat these as the same concept, with potentially damaging consequences for health studies, health policies and health programs.
With enough vaccine supplies coming online from October, the government has no excuse not to have all arrangements in place for an efficient vaccination program. Here’s what needs to change.
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.
While the pandemic has focused the world’s attention on how to prevent infectious disease, many of the lessons learned from COVID-19 prevention can also be applied to chronic disease prevention.
A cannabis decriminalization bill approved by the House is a sign from Congress that sentiment around the drug is evolving, but it misses a chance to regulate marijuana for the good of all Americans.
Now the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) has been scrapped, there’s a real chance for health to remain on the national agenda. But let’s not repeat mistakes of the past.
Honorary Enterprise Professor, School of Population and Global Health, and Department of General Practice and Primary Care, The University of Melbourne