The answer is real health reform, not more money

Schemes like these would also encourage doctors to recommend only necessary treatments, and would push medical suppliers to deliver their services more efficiently.

With an election nearing, health is in the news because both the government and the opposition have yet again promised to spend more money to solve the health system’s problems.

But the challenge is to create a sustainable health system - one that is capable of providing Australians with the better health care promised by the medical revolution. Because of the coming crisis of Medicare, we need real health reform.

Ad hoc interventions to stay hospital closures in Tasmania, and establishing yet another fund to absorb budget surpluses may grab headlines, but they don’t begin to touch the underlying problem.