Comments on: Untangling Australia’s healthcare system http://www.crikey.com.au/2009/02/17/untangling-australias-healthcare-system/ now with extra source Sun, 12 Feb 2012 02:14:27 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Matthew Hingerty http://www.crikey.com.au/2009/02/17/untangling-australias-healthcare-system/#comment-7953 Matthew Hingerty Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000 #comment-7953 Everybody is missing the big picture here. The politicians and health commentariat who work hand in glove to maintain the fiction that we can service increasing needs with a narrowing tax base are doing us all a disservice.<br /><br />A huge opportunity exists for us to revolutionise our health system and harness a new funding stream by tapping into the globalisation of health. Last year the Deloitte Centre for Health solutions predicted six million Americans will travel for health services, off 750k in 2007. The Economist calls this "one of the two different sorts of disruptive innovations promising to upend the American health care system".<br /><br />And yet we hear nothing from our leaders about the opportunity for our health system and our beleaguered tourism industry in the globalisation of health. Most haven't got the foggiest and those who have been briefed duck and weave because of the supposed political consequences.<br /><br />In education we have built a $10 billion export industry (worth more than inbound leisure tourism) that has been to the benefit of all. It has seen large-scale investment in our tertiary education sector and a massive expansion of our educative capacity to the benefit for all. Yes, there were early political concerns about importing students but where would education be today without the investment attracted by foreign students? Only the maddest of racist ratbags complain about foreign students now. <br /><br />With a bit of policy vision and a politician or two with guts we can do for health what we did for education and in the process take the next leap forward in tourism as well. Singapore grappled with this and their<br />small population now has first class health services because foreigners pay for it. You should no more protect our health system from global market forces than you should protect the car industry and our leaders should stop maintaining the fiction that they can.<br /><br /><br />Matthew Hingerty<br />Australian Tourism Export Council Everybody is missing the big picture here. The politicians and health commentariat who work hand in glove to maintain the fiction that we can service increasing needs with a narrowing tax base are doing us all a disservice.

A huge opportunity exists for us to revolutionise our health system and harness a new funding stream by tapping into the globalisation of health. Last year the Deloitte Centre for Health solutions predicted six million Americans will travel for health services, off 750k in 2007. The Economist calls this “one of the two different sorts of disruptive innovations promising to upend the American health care system”.

And yet we hear nothing from our leaders about the opportunity for our health system and our beleaguered tourism industry in the globalisation of health. Most haven’t got the foggiest and those who have been briefed duck and weave because of the supposed political consequences.

In education we have built a $10 billion export industry (worth more than inbound leisure tourism) that has been to the benefit of all. It has seen large-scale investment in our tertiary education sector and a massive expansion of our educative capacity to the benefit for all. Yes, there were early political concerns about importing students but where would education be today without the investment attracted by foreign students? Only the maddest of racist ratbags complain about foreign students now.

With a bit of policy vision and a politician or two with guts we can do for health what we did for education and in the process take the next leap forward in tourism as well. Singapore grappled with this and their
small population now has first class health services because foreigners pay for it. You should no more protect our health system from global market forces than you should protect the car industry and our leaders should stop maintaining the fiction that they can.

Matthew Hingerty
Australian Tourism Export Council

]]> By: JamesK http://www.crikey.com.au/2009/02/17/untangling-australias-healthcare-system/#comment-7954 JamesK Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000 #comment-7954 Despite Bernard Keane's pitiful excuse for the omission of Rosanna Capolingua from among the overtly left wing bent Commissioners, the sad fact remains that there was no formal representation from the AMA.<br /><br />This does not reflect badly on Dr. Capolingua. It reflects badly on the Rudd government in general and Nicola Roxon in particular. <br /><br />The loser, of course, will be the citizen dependent on the public health system Despite Bernard Keane’s pitiful excuse for the omission of Rosanna Capolingua from among the overtly left wing bent Commissioners, the sad fact remains that there was no formal representation from the AMA.

This does not reflect badly on Dr. Capolingua. It reflects badly on the Rudd government in general and Nicola Roxon in particular.

The loser, of course, will be the citizen dependent on the public health system

]]> By: Bohemian http://www.crikey.com.au/2009/02/17/untangling-australias-healthcare-system/#comment-7955 Bohemian Thu, 01 Jan 1970 10:00:00 +0000 #comment-7955 This is just Step 1 in the corporatisation of the public health system if you read all the signs and signals. This stuff about more tax is a smoke screen. PPP's in health and education are happening across the UK and in the US, so for sure it is going to happen to this Anglo-American satellite. It will start in the most needy areas because they are the ones the report stresses and the ones that won't argue. Ultimately it will work its way through to the cities by which time it will be too late to stop it..<br /><br />Not sure that government monopolies handed to large corporations are in the interests of the public however. Of course when they fail, which they invariably do, it will be the taxpayer who once again gets the bill for the fix.<br />Ask the AMA what they think about these super clinics. That is probably why they aren't getting a seat at the table.<br /> This is just Step 1 in the corporatisation of the public health system if you read all the signs and signals. This stuff about more tax is a smoke screen. PPP’s in health and education are happening across the UK and in the US, so for sure it is going to happen to this Anglo-American satellite. It will start in the most needy areas because they are the ones the report stresses and the ones that won’t argue. Ultimately it will work its way through to the cities by which time it will be too late to stop it..

Not sure that government monopolies handed to large corporations are in the interests of the public however. Of course when they fail, which they invariably do, it will be the taxpayer who once again gets the bill for the fix.
Ask the AMA what they think about these super clinics. That is probably why they aren’t getting a seat at the table.

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