-
Subscribe to our weekly and daily Pearls and Irritations newsletter!
-
Most viewed recently
- ABUL RIZVI. Partner Visas – A Lesser Known Dutton Scandal
- JOHN MENADUE. Negativity and a policy vacuum win the day.
- STEPHANIE DOWRICK. Selling a PM – or just trashing the alternative
- ANDREW JAKUBOWICZ. Election 2019: finally, the beginning of the end of White Australia?
- ABUL RIZVI. Is the Immigration and Customs Merger an Irretrievable Disaster?
-
Recent posts
- WALEED ALY. Australia Isn’t Right-Wing. It’s Cautious. (New York Times 21.5.2019) 22 May 2019
- STEPHANIE DOWRICK. What should we do? 22 May 2019
- KIM WINGEREI The Battle of the One Percent 22 May 2019
- ROSS GITTINS. Morrison’s miracle election may turn out to be the easy bit. (SMH 19.5.2019) 22 May 2019
- BRIAN HOWE. Vale Bob Hawke 22 May 2019
Categories
- Arts and Reviews (50)
- Defence/Security (914)
- Drug Reform (30)
- Economy (1,261)
- Education (261)
- Environment and climate (510)
- Health (616)
- Housing (93)
- Human Rights (446)
- Indigenous affairs (80)
- Industrial relations (36)
- Infrastructure (203)
- International Affairs (1,998)
- Asia (368)
- Links (10)
- Media (605)
- NBN (83)
- Politics (3,199)
- Refugees, Immigration (664)
- Religion and Faith (626)
- SERIES: Freedom, opportunity and security (60)
- SERIES: Making housing affordable (15)
- Sport (56)
- Technology, start-ups and new media (6)
- Tributes (52)
- Uncategorized (225)
Archives
Recent comments
- Michael Keating on ABUL RIZVI: Morrison’s budget plan was far riskier than Shorten’s
- Bob Ellis on WALEED ALY. Australia Isn’t Right-Wing. It’s Cautious. (New York Times 21.5.2019)
- PBoylan on KIERAN TAPSELL: Pope Francis and the Closed Door Syndrome
- J.Donegan on CLIVE KESSLER. A Malay game of thrones (East Asia Forum)
- Richard Ure on KIM WINGEREI The Battle of the One Percent
Tag Archives: private health insurance
JOHN MENADUE. The unfairness and waste of private health insurance and the threat to Medicare. Repost from April 21 2017
History is repeating itself. Medicare was created by the Whitlam government because of the abject failure of private health insurance or, as it was then called voluntary health insurance. As a result of the growth of private health insurance (PHI) … Continue reading
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.
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.
Posted in Health, Politics
Tagged Gough Whitlam and Medicare, John Menadue, Medicare, Nimmo Report, private health insurance
Comments Off on JOHN MENADUE. Who said this and when.
JOHN MENADUE. Preferential treatment for private patients in public hospitals in NSW.
See below a poster from NSW Health which is being displayed in public hospitals in NSW. Readers may be interested to comment. Two things interest me. The first is that the advertisement infers that if you have private health insurance … Continue reading
Posted in Economy, Health, Politics
Tagged John Menadue, private health insurance, private patients in public hospitals.
3 Comments
IAN McAULEY. The Mounting Case For A Royal Commission Into Banks And Insurance Companies
An overwhelming majority of Australians support a Royal Commission into the finance sector. Ian McAuley explains why. We’re paying too much for a bloated financial service sector.A prominent example is Australia’s largest health insurer, Medibank Private, which in the last … Continue reading
Posted in Economy, Health, Politics
Tagged Bank Royal Commission, general insurance, Ian McAuley, New Matilda, private health insurance
1 Comment
IAN McAULEY. Problems of Private Health Insurance.
The PHI industry continues to make two invalid assumptions about private health care. The first is that governments are intrinsically high cost and bureaucratic and that the private sector is unquestionably more efficient. This is patently not true. The least … Continue reading
Posted in Economy, Health, Politics
Tagged High-cost-of-PHI, Ian McAuley, private health insurance, private premiums and public taxes, single payer
Comments Off on IAN McAULEY. Problems of Private Health Insurance.
IAN McAULEY. A Royal Commission into banking and the private health insurance industry.
In this election campaign the issue that triggered a double dissolution – restoration of the Australian Building and Construction Commission – has hardly scored a mention. That contrasts with the 1974 double dissolution election, called by the Whitlam Government in … Continue reading
Posted in Economy, Health, Politics
Tagged 1975 double dissolution and Medibank/Medicare, 2016 Federal Election, Ian McAuley, private health insurance, Royal Commission on PHI, undermining Medicare
Comments Off on IAN McAULEY. A Royal Commission into banking and the private health insurance industry.
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 … Continue reading
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 … Continue reading
John Menadue. Part 2. How we deliver healthcare is as important as the funding of healthcare. Medicare has degenerated into a payments system.
In Part 1 I focussed on the importance of improving the delivery of health care and not just funding. In Part 2 I will focus on specific areas where costs should be reduced. Part 2 Getting costs down The … Continue reading
Stephen Duckett. Health in 2016: a cheat sheet on hospitals, Medicare and private health insurance.
We start 2016 as we started 2015 – with big challenges for the health system and uncertainty as to how governments will meet them. The health care headaches in 2016 are, in fact, the same ones we faced a decade … Continue reading
Posted in Economy, Health, Politics
Tagged health reform, Medicare, private health insurance, Stephen Duckett
Comments Off on Stephen Duckett. Health in 2016: a cheat sheet on hospitals, Medicare and private health insurance.
Ian McAuley, Jennifer Doggett, John Menadue. Private Health Insurance companies are price takers. Prices are set by doctors and hospitals.
Repost from 22/10/2015 On Tuesday the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) released its report on private health insurance. Private health insurance (PHI) was also in the news a day later with the standing down of the CEO of Medibank Pte, … Continue reading
Posted in Economy, Health
Tagged ACCC and PHI, Calvary hospital, health sector and the market, Medibank Private, private health insurance, single national insurers
Comments Off on Ian McAuley, Jennifer Doggett, John Menadue. Private Health Insurance companies are price takers. Prices are set by doctors and hospitals.
An Open Letter to the Minister for Health concerning Private Health Insurance.
19 November 2015 Hon Sussan Ley M.P., Minister for Health, Parliament House, ACT 2600 Dear Minister (I have signed this letter on my behalf and also on behalf of the people listed below. I will be posting this ‘open letter’ … Continue reading
Posted in Economy, Health, Politics
Tagged Arthur Chesterfield-Evans, Charity Healthcare, Fiona Armstrong, Ian McAuley, Jennifer Doggett, Jill White, John Dwyer, John Menadue, Karen Willis, Kerry Goulston, Medical Levy Surcharge, private health insurance, public hospitals, Sebastian Rosenberg, Stephen Leeder, Sussan Ley, Tim Woodruff, Tony McBride
4 Comments
John Dwyer. Wasting precious health dollars.
In the last eighteen months our coalition government has repeatedly warned that the rate at which we are increasing health related expenditure is unsustainable. The attempt to extract a co-payment from Australians visiting their GP was justified using this … Continue reading
John Menadue. Our health system is sustainable.
To justify an increase in the GST, Premier Baird has joined the long list of conservatives who keep telling us that our health system is unsustainable. Earlier the Treasurer, Ministers for Health and the Commission of Audit warned us in … Continue reading
John Menadue. Facts on the $11b per annum private health insurance industry subsidy.
The Minister for Health and Ageing, Sussan Ley has said she wants to canvas community and expert views on PHI (private health insurance). If she does consult the community on this issue that will be a welcome change, for consideration … Continue reading
Posted in Economy, Health, Politics
Tagged costs of PHI, John Menadue, PHI in US, private health insurance, Sussan Ley
2 Comments
John Menadue. Health Policy Reform: Part 2 – Why reform is difficult. Health ministers are in office but not in power.
Policy Series. In Part 1 on health policy reform I outlined the main areas where health reform is necessary. In Part 2 I examine the reasons why I think health reform is so hard. In part 3 I will consider … Continue reading
Posted in SERIES: Freedom, opportunity and security
Tagged AMA, Australian Pharmacy Guild, Department of Health failure, Fairness Opportunity and Security, health and vested interests, John Menadue, Medicines-Australia, Pearls and Irritations policy series, private health insurance
Comments Off on John Menadue. Health Policy Reform: Part 2 – Why reform is difficult. Health ministers are in office but not in power.
John Menadue. Health Policy Reform: Part 1 – Why reform is needed
Policy Series I will be posting three articles on health policy. This article outlines the priority areas where reform is necessary. Part 2 will explain why reform is so difficult but not impossible. Part 3 will be about processes and … Continue reading
Posted in SERIES: Freedom, opportunity and security
Tagged cost of blame-shifting in Health, Fairness Opportunity and Security, health funding, health programs, health workforce, John Menadue, Medicare, Pearls and Irritations policy series, primary healthcare, private health insurance
Comments Off on John Menadue. Health Policy Reform: Part 1 – Why reform is needed
Ian McAuley. If the government wants price signals, it should stop supporting health insurance.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott has declared the Medicare co-payment proposals “dead, buried and cremated”, but two related ideas behind it live on: Medicare is becoming “unaffordable” and our universal health system should morph into a program reserved for the poor. … Continue reading
John Menadue. Private health insurance and funding a Medicare Dental Scheme.
In this blog I have written extensively about the damage that private health insurance (PHI) is doing in Australia. We are sleep-walking into a US style health disaster. If people want private health insurance, that is their right, but I … Continue reading
Posted in Economy, Health, Politics
Tagged cost of PHI, funding a dental scheme, Medicare Dental Scheme, private health insurance
1 Comment
John Menadue. Health Insurance – here we go again!
The Health Minister, Sussan Ley has just announced a 6.2% increase in private health insurance premiums. Increases of this order happen almost every year. Since the Howard government introduced the rebate on private health insurance in 1999, the cost of … Continue reading
John Dwyer. Commentary on John Menadue’s blogs on the barriers to health policy reform in Australia. (Part 1)
As I suspected would be the case with many readers who enjoy “Pearls and Irritations”, I experienced in equal measure, satisfaction and frustration as I absorbed John Menadue’s informed and insightful analysis of the problems that beset our health system … Continue reading
Posted in Health, Politics
Tagged Australian pharmacists, electronic health record, Health costs, health reform, John Dwyer, primary health care, private health insurance
Comments Off on John Dwyer. Commentary on John Menadue’s blogs on the barriers to health policy reform in Australia. (Part 1)
John Menadue. Health Part 1 – what can we learn from overseas health systems?
This article was initially posted in June last year. There has recently been quite a number of articles, including in The Conversation, about what we can learn from overseas health systems. Before looking at these international comparisons, it is worth … Continue reading
John Menadue. Health Policy Reform: Part 2 – Why reform is difficult. Health ministers are in office but not in power.
In Part 1 on health policy reform I outlined the main areas where health reform is necessary. In Part 2 I examine the reasons why I think health reform is so hard. In part 3 I will consider ways in … Continue reading
John Menadue. The dog’s breakfast in co-payments has got worse.
The government is trying to dump its co-payment mess on to doctors. If doctors decide not to absorb the reductions in the Medicare rebate, many will pass it on to patients and dramatically reduce bulk billing. What a mess! In … Continue reading
John Menadue. Why health reform is so hard. It’s about power.
You may be interested in this repost. John Menadue. I have been actively involved in health policy for over twenty years. Throughout that period Medicare has been the shining light that has well and truly stood the test of … Continue reading
How does Australia’s health system compare.
The Treasurer, the Minister for Health and the Commission of Audit have warned us in one way or another that the Australian health service is unsustainable, particularly with an ageing population. The Treasurer tells us that the age of entitlement … Continue reading
Ian McAuley. Pay for a GP visit.
The Commission of Audit’s proposal to charge a $5 or $6 fee for “bulk-billed” GP services has little to commend it. But that doesn’t justify knee-jerk outrage from medical and consumer groups, or from the Labor Opposition, for there is … Continue reading
Posted in Economy, Health
Tagged bulk-billing, direct-consumer-payments-for-health, free-health-service, health-utilisation, out-of-pocket-health-expenditure, private health insurance, safety-nett
Comments Off on Ian McAuley. Pay for a GP visit.
John Menadue. Taxes – public or private
The Commission of Audit has recommended that a Medicare levy surcharge be applied to individuals earning more than $88,000 a year and $176,000 for families. This is designed to force high income earners to take out private health insurance. This … Continue reading
Posted in Economy, Health, Media, Politics
Tagged advertising-revenue-for-News-Ltd., Medicare-costs, private health insurance, taxes-for-ABC, US-budget-deficit
Comments Off on John Menadue. Taxes – public or private
John Menadue. Citizenship and shared experience.
The recent decision by the NSW Government to evict pensioners and low-income tenants from the Rocks in Sydney highlighted for me the importance of mixed communities and shared experiences. We all benefit in society when we have shared experiences. We … Continue reading