Health
-
JOHN MENADUE. Private Health Insurance vs dental care.
Australian health would be much improved if the $11 billion subsidy for private health insurance was abolished and part of those funds allocated to universal dental care within Medicare. Continue reading »
-
BOB BIRRELL. GP Oversupply and Medical Migration
There are many indicators of GP over-supply in Australia. … One consequence has been an escalation in the cost of GP rebates to the taxpayer. … Better distribution of GP services could be achieved by restricting new provider numbers to under-supplied districts. Continue reading »
-
CHRIS SIDOTI. 30th Anniversary of the Australian Human Rights Commission. Part 2 of 2.
Human rights work has a cost, and we need to remember the cost and the toll that it takes on the people who are doing it. Those who are paying the price need the support of those who are not paying so much. Continue reading »
-
PETER DAY. Homelessness v houselessness
We need to change the way we do charity and welfare; we’re out of kilter: lots of giving and receiving of things, but too little giving of ourselves – we just don’t have the time. It hardly needs saying, “People need people.” Continue reading »
-
KIM OATES. Respecting patients and keeping them safe
Some words of advice from Kim Oates for doctors and other health workers. The patient is the reason for health services. Health workers are means to that end. Continue reading »
-
IAN McAULEY. Brexit, Trump and the Lucky Country 1 – Who’s been left behind?
In “developed” countries the benefits of 35 years of economic growth have been unevenly distributed. Many people who once had well-paid manufacturing jobs and many who live in the country have fallen behind. While this has been most starkly manifest in the US, it is also happening in Australia. Continue reading »
-
Brexit, Trump and the Lucky Country 2 – The response of those left behind
It would be hasty to attribute the Brexit and Trump votes to a “swing to the right”, or to an ill-informed electorate. The most compelling explanations are in terms of protest votes. People’s anger of electorates has given an opening for political opportunists. Continue reading »
-
IAN McAULEY. Brexit, Trump and the Lucky Country 3 – Globalization takes the rap, unfairly
Globalization has been only one of the developments that has led to widening inequality and social exclusion. Countries that have globalized have also introduced a raft of neoliberal domestic policies, against which people are reacting. Continue reading »
-
Chomsky interview on the ravages of neoliberalism.
In this interview, reported in The Wire on 31 January 2016, Noam Chomsky talks about the ravages of neoliberalism. this is a repost from 21 February 2016. Continue reading »
-
HAL SWERISSEN and STEPHEN DUCKETT. Is a tax on sugary drinks “bonkers”?
The evidence is that currently there are significant harms and costs associated with the consumption of sugary drinks, both to those who are obese and the community more generally. Continue reading »
-
PETER SAINSBURY. A timely call to end massive public subsidies of the private health insurance industry
The private health insurance industry is a parasite on the health system and the public purse. The government-funded rebate on private health insurance premiums goes to the insurers, not the health care providers, and allows the government almost no control over how its money is used to treat sickness and promote health. If, for some Continue reading »
-
How inefficient private health insurance, drug manufacturers and distributors drive up costs.
In parliament, forty years ago on 27 September 1967, Gough Whitlam described the factors driving up the high cost of healthcare in Australia. The same vested interests drive up costs in Australia at the expense of the taxpayer and the community. John Menadue. Continue reading »
-
JOHN MENADUE. Who said this and when.
Private health insurance is unfair and inefficient. It was because of this that the Whitlam Government established Medibank/Medicare. Continue reading »
-
JOHN MENADUE. Cricket – alcohol and junk food.
Cricket has a dangerous relationship with alcohol and junk food. Continue reading »
-
IAN WEBSTER. Standing up for Medicare.
Fair access to health care is in the zeitgeist of European countries and Australia. The political sensitivities of this issue were demonstrated in the last election with the angst generated by the Labor Party’s “Mediscare” campaign. Continue reading »
-
TIM WOODRUFF. How universal healthcare is being undermined.
The Medicare rebate freeze is one strategy in that agenda. Reducing the Federal Government’s share of public hospital funding is another. Reducing the support for public dental care is another. Promoting private health insurance in primary health care is another. Continue reading »
-
LESLEY RUSSELL. The impact of private health insurance on equity and access in specialist healthcare
Most specialists charge fairly and reasonably, but there is clearly a need to name and shame those who are over-charging and over-servicing to ensure a level playing field for the good guys – and to protect, respect and care for their patients. Continue reading »
-
JOHN THOMPSON. Privatising Medicare by stealth.
Like the frog in hot water, Medicare’s privatisation by stealth can only result in an unfortunate end – despite the current government’s protestations of innocence. Continue reading »
-
HAZEL MOIR. Evergreening of patents and the cost of pharmaceuticals.
A low standard for granting patents can mean lengthy delays generic medicine availability. In one case this is shown to have cost taxpayers almost $A3 billion extra in Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme outlays. A solution is to grant patents only for inventions that embody a significant increase in what is known. Continue reading »
-
JOHN MENADUE. The National Party is silent on rural poverty and poor rural health.
Country electorates have the most disadvantaged people, the poorest health and inferior health services. But the National Party does very little about it. Continue reading »
-
Castro’s legacy. Cuba’s achievements in health have been remarkable.
In the article from The Lancet, Arjun Suri points out that despite spending one tenth per capita of what the US spends on health, Cuba’s infant mortality rate is better than the US and that the two countries have equivalent life expectancy. Continue reading »
-
IAN WEBSTER. Amid chaos, ethics.
Speaking particularly of the treatment people in Manus and Nauru, Professor Ian Webster argues that in this secular and chaotic world, the values and principles of the professional codes of health workers could be used to frame their future contributions to a civil and humane society. Continue reading »
-
JOHN MENADUE. Donald Trump – a false prophet and implications for Australia.
Trump prides himself in being a change-agent, but he really wants to restore the past and protect privilege. He will also do a great deal of social damage. Analysis of the US election tells us that many American ‘working class whites’ were sick of elites, whether they were in business, the media, Wall St, Continue reading »
-
ANDREW PESCE. The Health Care Home: too important to fail
It has been a long road for peak medical organisations in Australia to publicly recognise and support the concept that Fee for Service payments (where medical services attract a Medicare rebate for attendances and/or procedures) may not always be the most appropriate remuneration methods in primary care. Now, both the Royal Australian College of Continue reading »
-
BRUCE ARNOLD. Testing the body politic? Lobbying by the pathology industry.
Pathology testing in Australia is big business, getting bigger as the population ages and we rely on high-tech medicine for intractable ailments. Advocacy by commercial interests and government pathology service providers shapes public policy. It potentially affects elections rather than just the national budget. It matters. It is inadequately recognised and less understood. What Continue reading »
-
JENNIFER DOGGETT. Seven Key messages in Health.
This week the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare released its Health expenditure Australia 2014–15 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 Continue reading »
-
ARTHUR CHESTERFIELD-EVANS. Compulsory Third Party insurance in NSW- a Bad System about to Get Worse?
CTP, Compulsory Third Party insurance (Green Slips) in NSW are looking increasingly like a scam. In theory, if you are injured in a motor vehicle accident that is not your fault, all ‘reasonable and necessary’ treatment is currently paid for by your insurer. People might assume this means good, standard medical practice. This is Continue reading »
-
SUSAN RYAN. Older women – the new homeless.
It is more than timely that focus on increasing inequality in Australia include recognition of a massive contributing factor: the lack of affordable housing, especially for older women. Several groups have been identified as severely disadvantaged by the lack of affordable housing: unemployed young people, single parent families, and low paid workers who need Continue reading »
-
STEPHEN DUCKETT. Blood money: pathology cuts can reduce spending without compromising health
In the coming weeks I will be posting articles on the high costs and corporate nature of pathology in Australian. The following article by Stephen Duckett in The Conversation, even though posted in February this year, helps set the scene. John Menadue The Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook (MYEFO) set the cat among the pathology Continue reading »
-
PETER YOUNG. Unlike Jim Molan, We must not look away from the harm we are causing.
Monday’s Q&A gave a good insight into the philosophy and principles behind Australia’s Sovereign Borders Policy as described by one of its chief architects Jim Molan. Most telling was his argument that the means of maintaining tight border control and supposedly saving lives at sea justified the ends of indefinite cruelty, suffering and mental Continue reading »