Writing in Crikey, CPD founder and board member John Menadue and CPD fellow Ian McAuley give their opinion on government proposals to apply a means test to private health insurance subsidies. Menadue and McAuley call for even more action than simply means testing, suggesting that a single national insurer would provide the most efficient and equitable means of sharing our health costs.

“We are not advocating what some may call “socialised medicine”. Private hospitals serve an important function: they should be funded by means other than through private Insurance.

Nor are we calling for universal “free” health care — there are many sound arguments in favour of those with means paying more from their own resources, without private or public insurance.

Our main message is that to the extent we choose to share our health care costs, a single national insurer provides the most efficient and equitable means of doing so.”

Read the full article on Crikey here

Follow the link to read Menadue and McAuley’s full 18-page discussion paper Private health insurance: High in cost and low in equity