Medicare's much-needed reform held hostage by vested interests: Michael Lester in conversation with John Menadue, AO
Access to affordable primary healthcare through GPs has collapsed, forcing more people to rely on overcrowded and understaffed public hospitals. These hospitals, meant to be a last resort, have instead become the costly default option.
Recent articles in Health
Will the US trade war push up the price of medicines in Australia? Will there be drug shortages?
Talks of a trade dispute between the United States and Australia over the cost of medicines have no doubt left many Australians scratching their heads.
Trump cutting Vaccine Alliance funds could kill 1.2m children worldwide
This isn't fiscal responsibility. It's a political decision to let preventable diseases spread – to ignore science, lend legitimacy to anti-vaccine extremism, and dismantle the infrastructure that protects us all.
The PBS is under fire from US drug giants. There’s not much they can do
The drug companies have bought both American political parties. They have not bought Australia.
Zionism, anti-Zionism, and the role of psychological coping strategies
As both the actively enabled genocide against Palestinians in Gaza and the sanctioning of those who protest it continue, the associated psychological challenges likewise continue unabated. It is not only the international `rules-based’ order which is subverted (with all the political, legal, social, and economic dimensions that entails). When any pretence to a moral order is also subverted, the psychological scaffolding by which we navigate existence is at risk as well.
Environment: Building nuclear involves killing more people
Building nuclear power plants requires keeping air-polluting coal power going for an extra 25 years and killing 3000-10,000 Australians. Which milk alternatives will reduce your environmental footprint? Australia’s Carbon Credit Units trade for less than a tenth of the social cost of carbon. US Environmental Protection Agency abandons the environment.
When patients are harmed in hospital, issues aren’t always fixed to avoid it happening again
Recently, the media has reported several cases of serious “adverse events”, where babies, children and an adult experienced harm and ultimately died while receiving care in separate Australian hospitals.
Dutton has little faith in Medicare. Like Trump, he prefers culture wars
Peter Dutton does not really believe in Medicare. He is more interested in Trump-type culture wars than the health of Australians.
An election looms, but there's no sign of the political boldness needed to fix our healthcare system
The inequity and inefficiencies in our current health programs and the resulting need for change, have been obvious for decades. Finding the necessary political boldness to change this situation has eluded us to date. I acknowledge that there have been a number of governments and ministers who wanted to improve the healthcare of Australians and the cost efficiency of the same.
Medicare skullduggery
Prime Minister Albanese has announced an $8.5 billion boost for Medicare to make bulk-billing available to all adults, not just concession card holders. Within hours, the Leader of the Opposition matched Labors bid. Both leaders are acutely aware that health care affordability is a critical issue for the electorate. In his commentary on P&I March 1 Ross Gittins states Medicare has more problems than just out of pocket payments.
Bulk-billing incentives should be the start of something bigger
The federal governments new $8.5 billion investment in general practice is a powerful painkiller. It will bring welcome relief to patients facing GP fees, and to a primary care system thats under pressure. But it wont cure the systems underlying problems.
To make Medicare healthy again, our leaders must treat these worrying symptoms
I dont know if you noticed, but the federal election campaign began on Sunday. The date of the election has yet to be announced it may be mid-April or mid-May but hostilities have begun. And they began with an issue thats been big in election campaigns for 50 years: Medicare.
The Grandmother Effect, an evolutionary lesson for housing policy
Evolution works by conserving traits that carry value for the species, but more often it is perceived as survival of the fittest or in social darwinism. These are literary licences: scientifically, they are close to misinformation. A look at the Grandmother Effect will show you why.
