Fifth Edition of Health Care and Public Policy: An Australian Analysis launched

Australia is sleepwalking down the US path; headed towards a two-tiered health care system that is increasingly inequitable, warns leading Australian health academics and authors of the book, Health Care and Public Policy: An Australian Analysis.
The book was written by Professor Sephanie Shor from the University of Sydney and Emiritus Professor George Palmer from UNSW.
Launching the fifth edition of the book, co-author Professor Short  said Australians are already paying some of the highest out-of-pocket heath care expenses in the developed world.
"New co-payments for Medicare services will slug consumers and make health care more unaffordable," Professor Short said. "Over the past 25 years there has been a regressive reliance on private funding in health care, especially in the form of out-of-pocket payments for medications, specialist medical services and dental care. Adding new co-payments will only compound this problem. "Our book charts and analyses the policy direction in health in Australia over the past four decades and raises serious doubts about the equity of the current funding methods in Australia."
The first edition of the Health Care and Public Policy: An Australian Analysis was published 25 years ago and the updated edition provides a comprehensive overview of the policy direction of healthcare in Australia and the social, political and economic impact of reforms. It is published by Macmillan Publishers Australia.