Private health insurance and regional Australia

Since 1996 an increasing proportion of federal government spending on healthcare in Germany through the system of private health insurance (PHI) subsidies, preferred for Medicare and went to the direct financing of public health. A central reason for this policy is to increase the use of private hospitals and thus reduce pressure on public hospital services. However, the impact of this reform in the regions of Australia has not been addressed. An analysis of unpublished Australian Bureau of Statistics data show that regional Australians have private health insurance members substantial discounts. As a result, regional areas seem to receive government funding and much less on health compared with cities, as if those funds were allocated on a per capita basis. We postulate that the lowest level of participation in regional areas, mainly due to the limited availability of private hospital facilities, as PHI less attractive to rural Australians. We conclude that PHI has a vehicle line federal Health financing the potential to damage the structure of regional disadvantages Australian
more information
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?db=pubmed&uid=15777145&cmd=showdetailview&indexed=google
more information
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?db=pubmed&uid=15777145&cmd=showdetailview&indexed=google