Some insurers are testing opportunities to expand their involvement in primary care. AAP Image/Mick Tsikas

Balancing public and private as health insurers move into primary care

Prompted by the government’s Commission of Audit, health policy analysts have spent the first weeks of the year vigorously debating ways to rein in Australia’s rising health budget and to make the system…
Rudd’s new ministry retains several well-known figures in their previous roles but also includes a few newer names. AAP Image/Lukas Coch

Rudd’s new cabinet: the experts respond

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has named his new cabinet, which features a few familiar names and several others that will be unknown to many Australians. Here are some expert reactions to the new ministry…
The key question is whether the new prime minister regards the hospital system as having been fixed. AAP Image/David Crosling

Will the buck stop with Rudd on fixing the hospital system?

One of the key platforms of the first Rudd government was to reform the health and hospital system. The key message from then-prime minister Kevin Rudd was that the health, and particularly hospitals…
How far are you from the treatment you need? Having a heart attack puts the patient in a race against time. Flickr/alexkess

Heart attack by postcode: how fast and close is due treatment?

Australians considering where to have a heart attack can now do a postcode check on the speed and quality of medical treatment they are likely to receive. The Cardiac Accessibility and Remoteness Index…
The deal has a narrower focus than the original but still delivers $20 billion of extra funds.

Health agreement diagnosis: ‘watered down but not a total cave in’

Health professionals and patients alike breathed a sigh of relief yesterday when Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced she had struck a final deal with the states to reform the nation’s hospital system…

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