Private Health Insurance
(PHI) 8% rise
The Sydney Morning Herald
Thursday, 3 March 2005
The 8% private health insurance (PHI) rise means that all Australians who need public hospital care will see another $200 million per year of their taxes spent propping up the inefficient and expensive private health industry through the PHI rebate. That’s on top of the $200 a year slug to those who can afford private health insurance.
In emergencies it is public hospitals which save lives but the Federal Government is not giving 8% more per year to fund the public system, and as these hospitals struggle, patients lives are put at risk.
Tony Abbott last week described his personal experience of how stressful paying for private health care was and how it had brought him out ‘in a cold sweat’. It’s time he experienced lying on a trolley for 24 hours in an emergency department of a public hospital. Then perhaps he would approve an 8% yearly increase in public hospital funding.
Dr
President
Doctors Reform Society
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Federal takeover of public hospitals
The Sydney Morning Herald
Saturday, 12 March 2005
The report that health-care reformers strongly support the concept of a Federal takeover of public hospitals (12/3) is somewhat misleading in its simplicity. There are huge efficiency gains available in simplifying the way the three levels of government fund and provide health care. But the important question for many is whether such changes would lead to a fairer and more equitable health system. The Health Minister this week tabled a study from the Royal Australasian College of Physicians which shows that our health system is becoming less fair, and yet he insists that ‘health (care) is a market’ and that Medicare is really just a safety net.
The concern for many health-care reformers is that efficiency gains which are welcome, will be combined with more privatisation and increasing inequity, and will be used by the Federal Government to deflect criticism of its privatisation agenda.
Reform is required. It should be about equity and efficiency, not just efficiency.
Dr
President
Doctors Reform Society
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