Australians often pride themselves on the affordability and efficiency of our healthcare system, particularly in comparison to places like US. However is this pride misplaced?

In a recent article for The Australian, Mike Steketee measured our system against other comparable countries and found Australia lacking.

“In a survey last year by the Commonwealth Fund, a US-based private foundation, 22 per cent of Australians said they did not fill a prescription, did not visit a doctor with a medical problem or did not receive recommended care because of the cost. That compares with 5 per cent in Britain, 6 per cent in The Netherlands and 14 per cent in New Zealand. Of 11 countries, in only the US and Germany was the figure higher.”

So where can we improve? A number of measures proposed by Jennifer Doggett in CPD’s paper Out of Pocket: Rethinking Health Co-payments were picked up as ways to increase the affordability of cover. If we started to change healthcare with the consumer in mind we could make our healthcare system something to be proud of.

Read the full article in The Australian here