Jennifer Doggett

Jennifer Doggett is a health policy analyst and consultant who has worked in a number of different areas of the health system, including the federal health department and the community sector, and as a political advisor on health policy. She currently works with the health provider industry and consumer groups on a range of health issues.

Jennifer's recent articles

Its 2050. How is our health system holding up?

Its 2050. How is our health system holding up?

Introduction by Croakey:So much of our day-to-day attention is focused on the problems facing healthcare systems now. Lifting our gaze to envision the likely future challenges say in 2050 can help set a course forward.

Dissecting the controversy around Medicare reform and a disappointing response from the ALP

Any plan to change Medicare especially if it comes from a Coalition government is bound to attract controversy. So when health minister Greg Hunt announced a fortnight ago that more than 900 items on the Medicare benefits schedule would be changed with just a months notice, the reaction was immediate.

Lobby Land: the Pharmacy Guilds powerful influence over health policy

The Pharmacy Guild has been called the most powerful lobby group youve never heard of and for three decades has had a stranglehold on funding for community pharmacy in Australia.

JENNIFER DOGGETT. Even with massive taxpayer hand outs private health insurance is in a death spiral.(Croakey 7.2.2020)

If private health care has a future within the Australian health system we need to find a better funding mechanism than PHI. This means one that is sustainable, fair and efficient and designed to meet the needs of todays health care consumers with chronic and complex conditions.

JENNIFER DOGGETT. Interpreting Medicare data and bulk billing figures (Croakey)

New Medicare data, released today, has prompted a statement from Minister for Health, Greg Hunt, claiming that nearly nine out of 10 Australians visit their GPs without paying a cent and a media interview where he played down the impact of out-of-pocket costs on consumers, attributing any problems to a small group of specialists explaining that the overwhelming majority of specialists do the right thing, but there are outliers.

JENNIFER DOGGETT and LESLEY RUSSELL. Tackling Out-of-Pocket Costs

At the end of February the Federal Government released the report, twelve months in the making, from the Ministerial Advisory Committee on Out-of-Pocket Costs and outlined a national strategy to tackle excessive out-of-pocket costs. It is our opinion that the reports recommendations and the Governments response (for a website that provides information about medical specialists costs and for an education campaign to improve the understanding of OOP costs for consumers, GPs and medical specialists) do not go far enough, given the substantial and widespread impact of OOP costs. Our recently published paperoffers a road map for tackling the problems associated...

JENNIFER DOGGETT. Healthcares out-of-pocket crisis (Inside Story, 24.10.18)

Fast-rising medical expenses are restricting access to healthcare and increasing long-term costs. If two Australian capital cities were suddenly left without any dental services it would be considered a national crisis. But a problem of this size occurs each year and is ignored by governments and policy-makers. In 201617, more than 3.4 million Australians equivalent to the combined population of Brisbane and Adelaide delayed or avoided necessary dental care because of its cost. This startling figure is just one of the symptoms of the growing problem of out-of-pocket medical costs, which is undermining the equity, efficiency and...

JENNIFER DOGGETT. AIHW Health Expenditure Australia 2016-17 report five key lessons.

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) has released its Health expenditure Australia 201617 report. This report contains detailed data on expenditure throughout our health system and is a valuable resource for governments, policy makers and health stakeholders.

JENNIFER DOGGETT and LOUISA GORDON Out-of-pocket costs for healthcare are a problem for all Australians

Editor: Jennifer DoggettAuthor: Louisa Gordon (introduction by Jennifer Doggett)on: June 13, 2018In: Co-payments, health financing and costs, Healthcare and health reform Out-of-pocket health costs (OOPs) are a major challenge facing the Australian health system. Australians pay for a higher proportion of total health care in OOPs than do citizens of almost all OECD countries. In fact, OOPs are the third largest funder of health care in Australia, after Commonwealth and State/Territory Governments.

JENNIFER DOGGETT. Health Budget Gaps.

Prevention, out-of-pocket costs, and oral health.

JENNIFER DOGGETT. 8th National Health Reform Summit to focus on equity, efficiency and sustainability.

On Tuesday, March 27th the Australian Healthcare Reform Alliance (AHCRA) is hosting the 8th National Health Reform Summit in Canberra. This biennial event brings together organisations, experts and individuals working to improve Australias health system. This years Summit has a theme of Equity, Efficiency and Sustainability and will focus on developing positions on key health reform issues in the lead-up to the next federal election. Registrations for this event and the associated Advocacy and Communications Workshop are still open at www.healthreform.org.au

JENNIFER DOGGETT. Wasting government funds in subsidising private health insurance.

In the lead up to the recent Federal Budget, the Australian Healthcare Reform Alliance (AHCRA) ran a campaign to highlight the inefficiency of using health resources to subsidise private health insurance (PHI).The campaign focussed on calling on the Government to re-direct funding for the $7 billion private health insurance (PHI) rebate to address key areas of inequity and under-performance (while some estimates of the cost of the rebate are larger, AHCRA decided to use the most conservative figure for our campaign).

JENNIFER DOGGETT. Seven Key messages in Health.

This week the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare released its Health expenditure Australia201415 report. This document contains a wealth of information about the way in which we allocate resources across our health system. There are many interesting stories in this data which can help us understand how our health system works and what we can do to improve it.

JENNIFER DOGGETT. Midway through the election campaign, how is health travelling?

Its half way through the election campaign and both major parties have made some significant health policy announcements with Labor outspending the Coalition on health by over $2 billion (over four years). However, despite the fact that health consistently rates as the number one issue for voters, neither major party has satisfactorily addressed the key issues essential to ensuring that our health system is fair, efficient and equipped to meet future challenges.

Jennifer Doggett. Co-payments in the Australian Health System

Policy Series. The growing problem of out-of-pocket health care costs in health care is undermining the benefits of Medicare and creating a barrier to increasing fairness, opportunity and security throughout our health system. Out-of-pocket costs are the direct payments made by consumers for their health care which are not subsidized by any form of public or private insurance (or any other funding source). They include co-payments for care partially subsidized by Medicare and the PBS (for example GP services and prescription medicines), co-payments for goods and services subsidized by private health insurance (for those who have it) and the...

Jennifer Doggett. Budget 2014 - Primary Health Care

While some commentators are calling this Budget The end of universal health care others are seeing some opportunities to improve health system performance, in particular through better collaborations with state-funded health services and programs. The most high profile Budget measures in the primary health care sector are the introduction of new co-payments for bulk billed GP services and increased charges for related tests and medicines. There will be caps for high level users and some support provided for people on low incomes but overall these changes will result in higher out-of-pocket costs for consumers. These payments have been...

Jennifer Doggett. Cutting waste and costs in health.

Cut expensive and low-value services:Health funding is not allocated to areas which deliver maximum output. We spend too much on expensive low-value services and not enough on preventive, high value care.Recent research shows that a number of routine tests performed in the Australian health system do not improve clinical outcomes. These include x-rays for lower back pain, liver function tests for people on statin therapy and routine glucose tolerance tests for pregnant women. Structural reform:There is significant duplication of functions, gaps and poor coordination across areas of Commonwealth and State/Territory responsibility.There needs to be a single funder and/or single...

Repost: Co-payments: no rhyme or reason. Guest blogger Jennifer Doggett

This earlier post is reposted as it is relevant to the question of co-payments which a paper submitted to the Commission of Audit has proposed. Australians are often justifiably proud of Medicare and its role in making health care accessible to all in the community. However, a largely unrecognised threat to Medicare is the increasingly large component of health funding which comes directly out of peoples pockets in the form of out-of-pocket costs or co-payments. Co-payments are the second largest source of health funding in Australia, second only to governments. They currently contribute 18 per cent of total...

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