Medical debt can have devastating consequences. PhotoAlto/Odilon Dimier via Getty Images One in 10 Americans carry medical debt, while 2 in 5 are underinsured and at risk of not being able to pay their medical bills. This burden crushes millions of families under mounting bills and contributes to the widening gap between rich and poor. Some relief has come with a wave of debt buyouts by county and city governments, charities and even fast-food restaurants that pay pennies on the dollar to clear enormous balances. But as a health policy and economics researcher who studies out-of-pocket medical ..read more

Its price will take your breath away. Brian Jackson/Getty Images The price of asthma medication has soared in the U.S. over the past decade and a half. The jump – in some cases from around a little over US$10 to almost $100 for an inhaler – has meant that patients in need of asthma-related products often struggle to buy them. Others simply can’t afford them. To make matters worse, asthma disproportionately affects lower-income patients. Black, Hispanic and Indigenous communities have the highest asthma rates. They also shoulder the heaviest burden of asthma-related deaths and hospitalizations ..read more

Shutterstock Each year, more than 2,500 Australians die from diseases linked to eating too much salt. We shouldn’t be putting up with so much unnecessary illness, mainly from heart disease and strokes, and so many deaths. As a new Grattan Institute report shows, there are practical steps the federal government can take to save lives, reduce health spending and help the economy. Read more: Essays on health: how food companies can sneak bias into scientific research We eat too much salt, with deadly consequences Eating too much salt is bad for your health. It raises blood pressure, which increas ..read more

Pexels/Andrea Piacquadio The federal government has, for a long time, encouraged Australians to get private health insurance, in an attempt to reduce the financial burden on the public health system. To make private health insurance more attractive, the government has a strategy of carrots and sticks. Low-income and older people receive subsidies through “premium rebates”. High-income earners without the right policy face the Medicare Levy Surcharge, ranging from 1 to 1.5% of their taxable income. The effectiveness of these subsidies is regularly debated, with questions about whether the A$6.7 ..read more

Shutterstock The Australian government spends A$6.7 billion a year on private health insurance rebates. These rebates are the government’s contribution towards the costs of individuals’ premiums. But our analysis shows higher rebates for people aged 65 and older are not doing much to encourage them to sign up for private hospital cover, the very group who may benefit the most from it. This and other research point to these rebates largely going to people on higher incomes, ones who’d be more likely to buy private health insurance anyway. Read more: The private health insurance rebate has cost ..read more

A national review of primary care workforce regulations is investigating ways to increase Australians’ access to quality health care. The review is considering how health-care workers can use more of their skills and training, to work to their full scope of practice. This includes exploring who should be allowed to prescribe medications. Independent pharmacist prescribing is increasing around the world, and now trials are starting in most Australian states. The review should focus on expanding pharmacists prescribing for stable conditions and long-term medications, under the direction of a GP ..read more

Shutterstock The more people take up private health insurance, the less pressure on the public hospital system, including shorter waiting lists for surgery. That’s one of the key messages we’ve been hearing from government and the private health insurance industry in recent years. Governments encourage us to buy private hospital cover. They tempt us with carrots – for instance, with subsidised premiums. With higher-income earners, the government uses sticks – buy private cover or pay the Medicare Levy Surcharge. These are just some of the billion-dollar strategies aimed to shift more of us who ..read more

Shutterstock Preliminary data from the 2023 Intergenerational Report shows Australia’s population aged 85 and over is set to more than triple over the next 40 years. This will exacerbate existing strains on the aged-care system. The government’s Aged Care Taskforce is investigating aged-care funding options to develop a “fair and equitable” system, while exploring efficiency, affordability and sustainability. The government will spend more than A$146 billion on aged care in the next four years. General tax revenue will cover that cost, mostly funded by individual income tax receipts. But the g ..read more

Shutterstock Private health insurance is under review, with proposals to overhaul everything from rebates to tax penalty rules. One proposal is for higher-income earners who don’t have private health insurance to pay a larger Medicare Levy Surcharge – an increase from 1.25% or 1.5%, to 2%. And if they want to avoid that surcharge, they’d need to take out higher-level hospital cover than currently required. Encouraging more people to take up private health insurance like this might seem a good way to take pressure off the public hospital system. But our research shows these proposals may not ac ..read more

Shutterstock A cancer diagnosis is frightening news for anyone. But our fresh analysis shows what happens next can depend on how much money you have and where you live. Among middle-aged Australians cancer is the leading cause of death, accounting for 45% of all deaths among those aged 45 to 64 years. In an article just published in Health Economics, we examine the inequality in mortality (or death rates) across Australia. As has been found elsewhere, death rates in Australia are highest among those with the lowest socioeconomic status (SES). This measure of income, employment and education ha ..read more