Have kept a close eye on the discussions regarding the the Medicare Co-Payment with the spill today (Mr Abbott stays as PM 61-39) and the subsequent news conferences and commentary.
As far as I can tell Mr Abbott is now actually recognising that Health Policy that is not at least tacitly accepted by the Medical Profession will probably / usually fail.
Ms Ley has now been sent out to consult and come up with a plan for a co-payment that will be acceptable to the profession. If that is not possible I get the sense the idea will simply be quietly dropped.
Time will tell but I suspect all that will survive is some form of the imposition of an additional cost to those who can really afford to pay a little more. Everyone else will see no change I believe reading the tea leaves.
I have no idea, yet, what will happen with the PCEHR but if things pan out as I suspect - with Government Health Revenue reduced - it is unlikely to be pushed on with rapidly.
David.
5 comments:
I certainly have the view that patients contributing something to help cover the costs is a good practice, as long as there is a safety net for those who are disadvantaged. However The socialist meter wrt attitudes appears to well in the red zone these days. Perhaps they should just bump up the Medicare levy and taxes by a couple of percent given that a $5 gap is such a severe imposition?? Surely balancing the budget is not an evil aim? Getting rid of NEHTA and DOHA eHealth division would be a good start and would actually benefit eHealth. Can we suggest that!
"I certainly have the view that patients contributing something to help cover the costs is a good practice"
Based on what research?
Suggest begin reading here, do some research on "price signaling" creates as a health outcome maybe.
http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Community_Affairs/Australian_healthcare/~/media/Committees/clac_ctte/australian_healthcare/report.pdf
This just seems like Conservative ideology. Plenty of other areas of the health system or other areas to help the budget. This probably ain't one of them.
That and again, faux crisis here.
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/government-accused-of-overstating-health-spending-growth-20150121-12v8mb.html
Anonymous said...
"I certainly have the view that patients contributing something to help cover the costs is a good practice"
Based on what research?
Based on 30 years of public and private medical practice.
I am sure that if car washes were available by swiping your medicare card the costs of car washing would be enormous and the health of our cars might improve but the cost per car years saved would be enormous. People do need to take some responsibility for their own health and that in itself would be very healthy.
Anonymous said...
"I certainly have the view that patients contributing something to help cover the costs is a good practice"
Income Tax?
GST?
Health Insurance?
I am in agreement with Anonymous on this point. For hospitals "No evidence that the largest hospital-based pay-for-performance program led to a decrease in 30-day mortality" [ Ashish K, N Engl J Med 2012;366:1606-15]. Also a recent paper that I do not have directly at hand but can cite later showed for MEDICAID/MEDICARE patients in North America increased Federal Funding for PCP services increased the number of visits to PCP offices and in the Fee-for-Service PCP practices had no change but the quality of the service and outcomes was inferior in the Fee-for-Service practices.
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