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Health Policy and Equity of Health Care Financing in Australia: 1973–2010

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  • Mohammad Hajizadeh
  • Luke Brian Connelly
  • James Robert Gerard Butler

Abstract

type="main"> Using data from Australian Taxation Statistics and Household Expenditure Surveys we analyze the distribution of health care financing in Australia over almost four decades. We compute Kakwani Progressivity indices for four sources of health care financing: general taxation, Medicare Levy payments, Medicare Levy Surcharge payments, and direct consumer payments, and estimate the effects of major policy changes on them. The results demonstrate that the first three of these sources of health care financing are progressive in Australia, while the distribution of direct payments is regressive. Surprisingly, we find that neither the introduction of Medicare in Australia in 1984 nor the Extended Medicare Safety Net in 2004 had significant effects on the progressivity of health care financing in Australia. By contrast, the Lifetime Cover scheme—introduced in 2000 to encourage people to buy and hold private health insurance—had a progressive effect on health care financing.

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  • Mohammad Hajizadeh & Luke Brian Connelly & James Robert Gerard Butler, 2014. "Health Policy and Equity of Health Care Financing in Australia: 1973–2010," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 60(2), pages 298-322, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:revinw:v:60:y:2014:i:2:p:298-322
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1111/roiw.12103
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    Cited by:

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    2. Ayman Fouda & Gianluca Fiorentini & Francesco Paolucci, 2017. "Competitive Health Markets and Risk Equalisation in Australia: Lessons Learnt from Other Countries," Applied Health Economics and Health Policy, Springer, vol. 15(6), pages 745-754, December.
    3. Law, Hsei Di & Marasinghe, Dinith & Butler, Danielle & Welsh, Jennifer & Lancsar, Emily & Banks, Emily & Biddle, Nicholas & Korda, Rosemary, 2023. "Progressivity of out-of-pocket costs under Australia's universal health care system: A national linked data study," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 44-50.
    4. Sterling Edmonds & Mohammad Hajizadeh, 2019. "Assessing progressivity and catastrophic effect of out-of-pocket payments for healthcare in Canada: 2010–2015," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 20(7), pages 1001-1011, September.
    5. Pulok, Mohammad Habibullah & van Gool, Kees & Hall, Jane, 2020. "Horizontal inequity in the utilisation of healthcare services in Australia," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 124(11), pages 1263-1271.
    6. Zhou, Guoliang & Chen, Ran & Chen, Mingsheng, 2020. "Equity in health-care financing in China during the progression toward universal health coverage," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    7. P. Marcin Sowa & Sam Kault & Joshua Byrnes & Shu-Kay Ng & Tracy Comans & Paul A. Scuffham, 2018. "Private Health Insurance Incentives in Australia: In Search of Cost-Effective Adjustments," Applied Health Economics and Health Policy, Springer, vol. 16(1), pages 31-41, February.
    8. Hua, Xinyang & Erreygers, Guido & Chalmers, John & Laba, Tracey-Lea & Clarke, Philip, 2017. "Using administrative data to look at changes in the level and distribution of out-of-pocket medical expenditure: An example using Medicare data from Australia," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 121(4), pages 426-433.

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