We’re not even close to serious health reform in Australia – no matter how good the PR spin — and if you’re expecting anything meaningful to happen before 2020, bad luck, says Professor Ian Hickie.
Health reform
Bill Maher: Fat people can’t complain about health care reform
Comedian Bill Maher proposes a new rule: you can’t complain about health care reform if you’re not willing to reform your own health. Teabaggers, he’s looking at you.
Prospects for health reform just got worse
The prospects for health reform in the near future just reduced considerably with the Senate’s rejection of the legislation to reduce the private health insurance (PHI) rebates for high income earners, writes Robert Wells.
Liveblog: Obama addresses Congress on health care
According to Fox News, Obama has done 28 speeches on health care. But tonight’s speech to a joint session of Congress is make or break for his health reform plans (not to mention his presidency). Politico is also liveblogging with a slightly straighter take on the speech. Watch it live here.
Mall-walking: the next big thing in health reform?
Health isn’t just a matter for health professionals and doctors. Which is why health promotion may be coming to a shopping centre near you soon, writes Paul Dugdale.
Consumer advocate goes eye to eye with ophthalmologists
Exploiting a vulnerable health consumer is unethical behaviour for a professional group campaigning to maintain their high incomes. Which is exactly what ophthalmologists are doing, writes Carol Bennett.
Lessons in History: What we can learn from WW2 health reform
Until the 1940s, healthcare was more privilege than right. Were you be able to pull a few groats together, you might be able to get a doctor to bleed your ills away.
Labor on child care: promises but no answers
The hot topic of child care remains a mess in Australian, with the government refusing to reveal key data about the status of the industry, writes Sophie Mirabella.
Medicare De-Select: does allowing an “opt out” mean the end of Medicare?
Along with the laudable plans to reform a basically robust system, the National Health and Hospitals Commission proposal suggests something that could undermine our system’s very fundamentals: Medicare Select.
Health reform report: big on efficiency but what about quality?
Many policy analysts (including myself) would argue that a Commonwealth take over of the whole caboodle is the way to go with health care. However, what is all this talk of “efficiency costs”? asks Gavin Mooney.
Actually, preventative healthcare has been a spectacular success
Simon Chapman responds to Bernard Keane’s contention yesterday that prevention is not always the best cure when it comes to health reform.
Rudd should sink his teeth into reducing sugar consumption
Since everyone is in wild agreement that the cause of tooth decay is sugar, why are we not acting to restrict its consumption?, asks David Gillespie.
Doctors criticise Rudd’s hospital tours
Doctors are too busy to play tour guides for Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s hospital tours and they’re coming out in complaint at Rudd’s lack of understanding of the depth of the hospital funding crisis.
Denticare slammed by private insurers
Denticare — the proposed $3.7 billion plan for a universal dental health scheme — is coming under fire even by those who are likely to reap the cash benefits: private insurers, writes Adam Cresswell.
Gittins: Rudd’s health reforms just new empty promises?
Is health reform just another hot topic that Rudd gets excited about then forgets, like climate change and the GFC? asks Ross Gittins.
Healthcare is boring and confusing
Sick kids? Indigenous health? More rural doctors? Apparently healthcare, although worthy, is a boring topic that kills ratings and is confusing for journalists to report. And journalists are even admitting it…
Our health system serves most of us well. That’s the issue
The real political issue of the recently released health reform report is that our health systems — plural — are perceived as broken when in fact they’re not.
Crikey Says: Tabloids struggle with health report
Australia’s tabloid/broadsheet divide was again highlighted with the release of the important, if difficult-to-pitch, report from the National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission which landed yesterday.
Aboriginal people have good reason to be mistrustful of health services
Historically speaking, health services have been part and parcel of racist policies. Which is why Aboriginal people have reason to be suspicious of Australian mainstream health services.
Can COAG deliver on health? History suggests not
The challenge now is for a national debate on the content and implications of the 123 recommendations, writes Robert Wells.
Lessons Rudd can learn from US health care
Rudd has something to learn from America’s health care system when it comes to reforming Australia’s health care. For example, how the US collects and analyses data in hospitals, writes Dr Lesley Russell.
Prevention is impractical, but try telling that to the PM
Prevention is a health economist’s dream given the ageing of the population and the growth of chronic diseases. It’s better than cure, PM Kevin Rudd agreed yesterday, three times. But is that really true?
Rudd to visit hospitals for health reform planning
Kevin Rudd and Nicola Roxon are set to visit 25 teaching hospitals in a order to gain further understanding of where the problems in hospitals and health care lie - “warts and all”.
Rudd says health reform won’t be cheap
Kevin Rudd says that health reform “won’t come inexpensively” and there will be at least six months of consultations before any changes to the health system are made.
Voters hold power in health reform
The buck on health reform doesn’t stop with Kevin Rudd - it stops with the voter, writes Dennis Atkins.
