Australia’s health gaps – including those between rich and poor, between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians, and between the major cities and everywhere else – are starkly revealed in the latest reports from the COAG Reform Council: • Healthcare 2011-12: Comparing performance across Australia • Disability 2011-12: Comparing performance across Australia. The health report is being formally [...]
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Some of what to expect if Peter Dutton becomes Health Minister….
For those wondering about the Coalition’s plans for health policy, some hints emerged when Opposition health spokesman Peter Dutton spoke at an Australian Institute of Company Directors meeting this morning. Thanks to Dr Stephen Duckett, health program director at the Grattan Institute, for his tweet-reports, as per below:
READ MOREHow the Danes are incubating “health, wealth and innovation”
The Danes have been getting rave reviews lately for their excellent work onscreen (yes, Croakey has enjoyed plenty of couch time with Borgen, The Killing, The Bridge, and Lulu – The Bankrobber’s Wife…) But perhaps we can also learn from their innovative work in what is being called “welfare technology”. In the municipality of Odense, for [...]
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Health sector wish-lists: a pre-Budget round-up
With less than a week to go before the Federal Budget 2013, the leaks and rumours (and rumours about leaks) are increasing and speculation about possible new funding measures is mounting. The following analysis looks at the main items on the wish-lists of eight peak health groups and identifies key issues on which there is [...]
READ MOREHealth spending: patients bearing higher costs
From the Commonwealth Parliamentary Library’s FlagPost blog comes the following excellent overview of the main issues in the current debate on out-of-pocket costs. This piece was written by Amanda Biggs and posted with permission. Recent reports have highlighted the growing cost of health services and the increasing financial burden on individuals. According to data from the Australian [...]
READ MOREQ&A’s Health Debate: the experts respond
Reema Rattan writes: While the federal election is still months away, issues of health funding are already dominating the news. A Grattan Institute report released yesterday, for instance, noted the greatest budgetary pressure facing Australia comes from sustained increases in health costs. Last night, ABC TV’s Q&A featured Health Minister Tanya Plibersek and Shadow Health [...]
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Some important questions about health policy and the federal election (aka your #qanda cheat sheet)
Health policy is up for debate this week thanks to ABC TV’s Q and A program, featuring Federal Health Minister Tanya Plibersek and the Opposition’s health spokesman Peter Dutton. You can pose a question online and see some of the other questions that have already been lodged, including: Large corporate organisations have become major players in [...]
READ MOREA conversation that needs to continue: what to do about the relatively small number of doctors who account for so many patient complaints
The online ecosystem, linking up journals, bloggers, mainstream media and researchers with the wider world, is bringing new opportunities for researchers to hear and learn from the responses to their findings. The article below documents some of the wide-ranging responses to a recent study which found that a small proportion of doctors account for a [...]
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Recommended reading on the history of primary care reform (and what can be learnt from it)
There is some essential new reading for those concerned with primary care and related reforms, according to health policy analyst Jennifer Doggett. In the article below, she reviews Primary Care and General Practice in Australia 1990-2012: A Chronology of Federal Government Strategies, Policies, Programs and Funding, by Dr Lesley Russell from the Australian Primary Health [...]
READ MOREConsumer group calls for a “fundamental shift” in how pharmacy services are funded
Important questions about the governance of the multi-billion dollar agreement between the Federal Government and Pharmacy Guild of Australia (representing pharmacy owners) are raised in the article below. Carol Bennett, CEO of the Consumers Health Forum, argues that the Fifth Community Pharmacy Agreement - a $15.4 billion investment by taxpayers over five years – fails to meet [...]
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