Health
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WARWICK ELSCHE. Shorten should play to Labor’s strength.
For more than 60 years, since opinion polling became important in shaping election strategies, there has been for the Australian Labor Party one awkward but stubborn consistency. Rightly or wrongly the Australian Electorate, with very isolated and brief exceptions, has always preferred and trusted the non Labor side of politics, the Liberal-National Party Coalition, Continue reading »
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JOHN THOMPSON. Private health insurance seek to extend tentacles.
The recent report of the Inquiry into Chronic Disease Prevention and Management in Primary Health Care by the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Health has been somewhat overshadowed by the current election campaign. One of the terms of reference of the Inquiry required the Committee to consider the role of private health insurers in Continue reading »
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JENNIFER DOGGETT. Midway through the election campaign, how is health travelling?
It’s 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 Continue reading »
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IAN WEBSTER. Bulk-billing rates are not what they seem.
A categorical mistake: Is bulk-billing a reliable indicator of access to GPs? Where I work in regional NSW, patients have difficulty finding a GP who is prepared to bulk-bill them for their medical care. The phone call to the practice receptionist ends, so often, with, “The doctor’s books are full”. At the same time Continue reading »
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LESLEY BARCLAY. Diagnosing rural health gaps in the election.
It is timely as the federal election approaches to consider whether all Australians are getting the healthcare they need. Approximately 30 per cent of Australians live in rural and remote areas. Arguably they do not get a ‘fair go’ in relation to their healthcare compared to the rest of us. Rural and remote Australians are Continue reading »
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STEPHEN LEEDER. Alcohol and sport.
Queensland’s victory over NSW in the June 1 game was reported as the highest rating State of Origin match ever and ‘the top TV event of 2016.’ Both teams carried alcohol advertising on their clothing into the match. The association of alcohol with sport is deep, complex and profitable. Sport provides a lucrative vehicle for Continue reading »
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JOHN DWYER. Restructuring the governance of health care in Australia. Part 1
Part One. Structural reforms for better health outcomes from a redesigned more cost-effective health care system. The most important pre-election health care initiative has received very little publicity. Labor has committed to establishing a “Healthcare Reform Commission” if elected. While not likely to generate much discussion in one’s local pub it represents an acceptance by Continue reading »
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JOHN DWYER. Restructuring the governance of health care in Australia. Part 2
Part Two. Structural reforms for better health outcomes from a redesigned more cost-effective health care system. There is broad agreement that in the near future our General Practitioners and their teams will earn the majority of their income from capitation payments that will require, for the first time in our Primary Care system, the documentation Continue reading »
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MICHELE KOSASIH. Seven years on and still itching for change on the negative impacts of alcohol.
2016 marks seven years for the Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education’s (FARE) Annual Alcohol Poll (conducted by Galaxy Research), and we continue to see Australia’s concern about the negative impacts alcohol has on the community. Continue reading »
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National Foundation for Australian Women. Budget 2016-17: A gender lens.
The National Foundation for Australian Women has prepared an analysis of the Budget 2016-17 with what it calls a ‘gender lens’. An executive summary of this analysis follows. A link to the full document can be found on ‘the budget’ button: www.nfaw.org. Budget 2016-17 fails to bring Australian women into the centre of the economy Continue reading »
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JOHN MENADUE. Health principles and policies for the next parliament.
Thanks to Medicare introduced over 40 years ago, despite bitter conservative opposition, we have one of the best health systems in the world. It is sustainable but we waste over $20 b per annum. There are threats and problems that we must face. What are they? Continue reading »
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Ian Webster. Is community medicine dead?
John Menadue said in the NSW Health Council Report of 2000, “Services should be based where patients and consumers live. The autonomy and dignity of each patient is best serviced by providing services wherever possible outside hospital. So a shift to community multi-disciplinary health teams is a major issue still ahead of us.” He returned Continue reading »
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John Thompson. Surgeon’s report shows the ineffectiveness of private health insurers to control health costs
Private health insurer Medibank has worked with the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons to produce a report that shows enormous variation in fees charged by surgeons for similar procedures. The Surgical Variance Report for General Surgery reviewed thousands of procedures performed on Medibank members in eight common operations – gallbladder removal, gastric band procedures, bowel Continue reading »
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Peter Gibilisco. A Synergistic Approach to Disability
Here is my proposal for a Dictionary definition of Synergy: the interaction or cooperation of two or more organizations, substances, or other agents to produce a combined effect greater than the sum of their separate effects. “the synergy between artist and record company” or disability support workers and people with disabilities with high support needs. Continue reading »
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Adrian Bauman & William Bellew. Does a spoonful of sugar help the medicine go down?
“A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down”, according to Mary Poppins. Many more spoonfuls of sugar currently pervade our lifestyles and unconscious food choices. The recent media focus on sugar has been remarkable, but the media frenzy has sought a single solution, a quick fix, to what is in reality a complex problem: Continue reading »
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Tony Broe. Coordinating Community Aged Care & Hospital Aged Health Care
Getting Australian Health Services right depends on delivering both Aged Care & Health Care effectively for frail ‘high risk’ older-old people. Reducing inappropriate hospital admissions, shortening length of stay, returning frail people to their homes rather than Residential Care, all depend on accessible, locally based, Community Aged Care assessment support and management systems. For around Continue reading »
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Mark Harris. Obesity: it is time to tax sugar sweetened beverages?
Obesity rates are increasing in the Australian population (Figure 1). There is a widening socioeconomic gap with low socioeconomic groups having the highest rates. There is some evidence that obesity rates in children may be levelling off but not in low socioeconomic status children. Overweight and obesity contributes significantly to the burden of disease (about Continue reading »
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Kerry Breen. What ails the national registration scheme for Australia’s 600,000 health professionals?
In response to one element of a 2005 Productivity Commission report , the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) decided that the state and territory systems of registration of health professionals, some in existence for over 150 years, would be replaced by a single national scheme . The new scheme, based on a “national law” adopted Continue reading »
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John Menadue. Health reform and cooperative federalism. Part 2
In part 1 of this series, I set out why I was attracted to the development of an option set out in a COAG paper on health reform which suggested the establishment of a commonwealth hospital benefit which would replace the PHI subsidy. Regional Purchasing Agencies to address the’ blame game’ in health. In part Continue reading »
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John Menadue. The health insurance lobby at work at the expense of the public interest.
For many years, Ian McAuley and I have been highlighting the damage to our health system and the Australian economy as a result of the $11 b. p.a. subsidy to the private health insurance industry. We have highlighted the following and never has there been a rebuttal by these vested interests. The subsidy favours high Continue reading »
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John Dwyer. Structural reforms to healthcare – two major reforms.
Does the government understand the structural reforms to health care needed by modern Australia? Political pre-election posturing at the moment has involved many debating the question that asks ’Do we have a spending or a revenue problem in Australia?” Certainly when it comes to our health system we should first be asking what structural reforms Continue reading »
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John Menadue. The fake discussion about state taxes.
Malcolm Turnbull’s ruse is obvious. He wants us to forget all about deficits and debt and the need for budget repair. To avoid these issues, he now tells us that if we want improved health and education services, we cannot have them because the states have refused his offer on state taxes and he will Continue reading »
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Mike Steketee. COAG and hospitals: look beyond the funding to fix our health system.
Before Malcolm Turnbull and the states start haggling over hospital funding, it’s worth looking at why the system costs so much to run. Maybe it’s not just cash, but waste and inefficiencies that need addressing, writes Mike Steketee. Why do our hospitals cost so much to run? Like$55 billion a year and rising rapidly? It Continue reading »
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Michael Keating. The Turnbull Proposal for State Income Taxes
Prime Minister Turnbull says his proposal for the States to levy their own income tax ‘is the most fundamental reform to the Federation in generations’. Well maybe. It certainly would be a significant change, but reform? Furthermore, even if this proposal were ever implemented, it is hardly new. For example, the Fraser Government actually legislated Continue reading »
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John Menadue. State income taxes – another political diversion?
Malcolm Turnbull’s suggestion of states entering the income tax field may please ‘state rightists’ in the Liberal party, but it will damage our national aspirations and our national society and economy. In the repost below, Michael Keating, almost two years ago emphasised the importance of the commonwealth government’s domination of income taxes since 1942. This Continue reading »
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John Menadue. Budget repair and private health insurance.
Readers of this blog will be aware that I have been expressing concern about the serious consequences of the government subsidy costing $11 b. p.a. for the private health insurance industry. This subsidy has serious budget consequences: it is skewed in favour of high income earners; it has not taken pressure off public hospitals; it Continue reading »
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Jonathan Karnon. No-one should get dud hospital care.
In 2013-14, Australian governments spent A$105 billion on health; A$44 billion of that was on public hospitals. The Commonwealth government is increasingly concerned with the size of the health budget and has acted to reduce the inappropriate use of Medicare benefits. But the Commonwealth government has less influence on public hospitals because the state and Continue reading »
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Peter Gibilisco. Disability support services – effectiveness and efficiency.
Let me be frank. There are many stringencies that have to be faced in the provision of disability support services. We all know this whether we are recipients of in-home one-on-one support, residents, workers or management of disability support services, or even as officials of the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). We all Continue reading »
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Ian Webster. Drugs and the problem of pain
At the centre of the drug problem is the problem of psychic and physical pain People with mental illness turn to alcohol and drugs to lessen their distress. When adolescents and young adults use a substance to ameliorate their social anxieties a pattern of lifelong alcohol and drug misuse can be set in train. People Continue reading »
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Rosemary Breen. Living Water Myanmar
Five years ago, when I started this project of building large water tanks to collect water during the rainy season in the Dry Zone of Central Myanmar I had no idea how many lives would be changed because of this simple concept. To date 114 water tanks have been built for villages and schools due Continue reading »