Sorry, but Medicare needs to change” writes Ross Gittins. A fee-for-service model fitted with the nation’s needs in 1974 when the Whitlam Government introduced universal publicly-funded health insurance, but over a half-century our needs have changed. We should be putting more resources to preventing and managing chronic conditions and reducing the need to call on specialists and hospitals, with a policy focus on patients rather than the interests of service providers.
Japan and North Korea may be arch foes but there’s a school in the Japanese capital for Koreans that have remained loyal to the North’s three Kim regimes to learn their language, culture and heritage. Another perspective on the same school system can be found here.
With Brexit, Britain seems to be embracing an introverted irrelevance, says Steven Erlanger in the New York Times International Edition.
There is nothing wrong with Catalonia becoming independent, says Colm Toibin in the Guardian.
Who bears the brunt of corporate tax cuts asks Kimberley Clausing
What next for the refugees and failed asylum seekers on Manus Island? asks Harriet Spinks
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