Doctors Reform Society of Australia
			supporting health care reforms to ensure justice, equity and quality care for all
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The 1997 DRS Annual Conference was held in Sydney in November attended by representatives from the state branches, and from nurses' organisations, social workers, academics, medical students, the ethnic community and pensioners.  The Conference emphasised the importance of encouraging and maintaining networks between DRS and like-minded community organisations.

The open session took the form of workshops around two major themes:  "Is health a common good?" led by Ian McAuley, and "What can we expect from our health system?" led by Gavin Mooney.  In this issue we publish Ian McAuley's brief overview of his topic.  We hope to publish Gavin Mooney's paper on the next issue of New Doctor.

Ian McAuley gave us two telling take home messages:

• Medicare is already a major health maintenance organisation, funded by its contributors through taxation and the Medicare levy, but available to all without exclusions.
• The pressure to send people into private health insurance is in effect a government legitimation of a private tax, which is higher than the Medicare levy and is paid at the same rate by all contributors irrespective of income.

Readers will recall the intense debate around the Port Macquarie Hospital in New South Wales at the time of the 1993 federal election.  This was the first privatisation of a new public hospital and it has turned out to be an expensive burden for the labor government which inherited it.  As Fran Collyer and Kevin White show, saving on the initial building costs means postponing a much greater cost to a later generation.  We also welcome an article by Dr Ben Bartlett on Aboriginal Health, an important contribution in the current climate surrounding the Wik debate.

Stefania Siedlecky AM
 

.		.	The Doctors Reform Society of Australia, Box 14, 4 Goulburn Street, Sydney 2000. Phone 02 9264-9084 Fax 02 9267-4393.	.
			This page was last updated on 10th February, 2003.
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