“The implementation of primary health care (PHC) may well be one of the most significant systemic and ideological health reforms of modern times. Countries with stronger PHC systems have demonstrably more efficient, effective, and equitable health care. Primary health care can be considered a philosophy, an approach to the delivery and development of services and [...]

If the Federal Government wanted to use the forthcoming Budget to boost population health, what would it do? Raise taxation generally (plus specific hikes for tobacco, alcohol, and unhealthy foods), and remove subsidies on the use of fossil fuels. These are among the suggestions from Croakey contributors outlined in the post below. Contributors also said [...]

In the fourth part of The Conversation’s series Health Rationing, Peter Sivey, Senior Research Fellow at the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economics, explains why it might be time to abandon Medicare’s fee-for-service model. He writes:  Teachers aren’t paid a fee for each lesson they teach, nor are police officers paid for each arrest they make. [...]

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 [...]

Mark Harris, Elizabeth Harris and Nicholas Zwar write: While independent, government-funded Medicare Locals are still in their embryonic form, opposition health spokesperson Peter Dutton has hinted that, if elected, a Coalition government would scrap the bureaucracies and redirect funds to front-line patient care. “We support a role for the coordination of primary care, but we [...]