The Parliamentary Library has recently published analyses about the increase in private health insurance premiums, the National Disability Insurance Scheme legislation, and food labelling. Thanks to the Parliamentary Library for allowing cross-posting. Increase in PHI premiums Amanda Biggs tracks premium rises and the consumer price index (CPI) and shows that premium rises have been well [...]

Donna McDonald writes: Last week’s protest by several quadriplegic Queenslanders against age discrimination prompts us to examine how the National Disability Insurance Scheme should balance needs-based eligibility and entitlement. The Queensland protesters say they should not be excluded from state-based disability services, even if their spinal cord injury happened after 65 years of age. The protesters say [...]

The AMA should reconsider its opposition to the concept of paid patient advocates, says Anne Cahill Lambert, a prominent health consumer advocate who writes below that many patients could benefit from someone to help them negotiate “the maze of the complex health system”.  *** On Dad and Dave, and others who might be helped by [...]

Thousands of words have been written and said about mental health in the wake of the first national report card on mental health and suicide prevention (including quite a few at Croakey). But it’s the NSW Ombudsman’s recent report, Denial of rights: the need to improve accommodation and support for people with psychiatric disability, that provides perhaps [...]

As recently previewed, an important policy forum, Why has dental health been getting the brush off?, in Canberra this week aimed to focus public and political attention on the need to address the glaring inequities in dental health care. Thanks to Lexia Smallwood and Gordon Gregory of the National Rural Health Alliance for providing this report, which [...]

Thanks to The Conversation for providing this wrap of recent health and medical stories covering youth alcohol use, breast cancer, men’s health, circumcision, GM food and more….   NDIS: a step out of the dark By Hal Swerissen, Professor of Health Policy at La Trobe University http://theconversation.edu.au/ndis-a-step-out-of-the-dark-7565 Early on in my career I was part of the process [...]

Amongst all the talk about mental health reform and health reform more broadly, we haven’t heard much about the role of the community mental health sector. But the sector is facing profound challenges as a result not only of national health reform, but also disability sector reforms, suggests a recent paper from VICSERV, which represents [...]