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Editor's note
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The 11 million or so Australians with private health insurance will have to pay more for it from next week. This year’s 3.95% premium increase is the lowest in 17 years but it’s still far higher than the growth in wages, prompting some to consider whether they really need the cover. As Sophie Lewis and Karen Willis write, insurers promise shorter waiting times and more choice, but exclusions and fees may mean it’s not worth it.
Of course, it’s cheaper for some people to take out private health insurance than pay the Medicare levy surcharge. That’s not to be confused with the 2% Medicare levy most of the country pays. How did we end up with such a patchwork of rebates, levies and surcharges? We explain how the system evolved and what’s behind the premium increases in these 14 charts.
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Fron Jackson-Webb
Senior Health + Medicine Editor/Deputy Chief of Staff
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Top story
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More than half of Australians have private health insurance.
l i g h t p o e t/Shutterstock
Sophie Lewis, UNSW; Karen Willis, La Trobe University
Private health insurance premiums will rise from April 1, leaving consumers wondering if they should give it up or downgrade to save money.
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Health + Medicine
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Fron Jackson-Webb, The Conversation; Emil Jeyaratnam, The Conversation; Benjamin Silvester, The Conversation
Private health insurance premiums are set to rise again. These 14 charts (well, technically 10 charts and four tables) look at some of the reasons why health insurance premiums keep going up and up.
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Jon Quach, Murdoch Childrens Research Institute
The shift from daylight saving time will leave kids' body clocks an hour "out of sync", in a similar way to jet lag. Here are some evidence-based strategies to deal with this.
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Science + Technology
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Brad E Tucker, Australian National University
China's Tiangong-1 space station is hurtling around Earth out of control and about to come crashing down. It's just one of thousands of pieces of space junk left orbiting our planet.
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Sandeep Gopalan, Deakin University
The international community should set bright line rules on appropriate responses to cyber attacks before an expansive reading of the “self-defense” clause triggers war.
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Vincent Mitchell, University of Sydney; Andrew Stephen, University of Oxford; Bernadette Kamleitner, Vienna University of Economics and Business
The silver lining to the Cambridge Analytica case is that more people are recognising that we pay for online services with not only our own privacy, but that of our friends, family and colleagues.
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Politics + Society
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Daniel Ghezelbash, Macquarie University
As countries compete to deter asylum seekers, there's a vicious cycle in which governments seek to outdo each other by implementing progressively more restrictive policies.
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Alexey D Muraviev, Curtin University
Australia has joined its allies in expelling Russian diplomats as retaliation for a nerve-agent attack on a former Russian agent and his daughter. But the action is unlikely to trouble Russia.
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Michelle Grattan, University of Canberra
Tony Abbott described Pauline Hanson as 'a remarkable and a resilient presence in our public life for more than two decades'.
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Nicola Henry, RMIT University
It's important to differentiate between various forms of sexual violence to punish perpetrators appropriately, and to help those affected to label and describe their experiences.
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Michelle Grattan, University of Canberra
The Australian government is expelling two Russian spies as part of a broad international retaliatory action against Russia.
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Arts + Culture
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Chari Larsson, Griffith University
Part human, part animal, Patricia Piccinini's sculptures are uncannily familiar, yet alarmingly other. A major new exhibition creates a parallel universe in which viewers can encounter her work.
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Business + Economy
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Saurav Dutta, Curtin University; Nigar Sultana, Curtin University
Removing expiry dates should increase sales and give consumers more flexibility, but it could also increase costs.
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Michelle Grattan, University of Canberra
The government has been forced to put off a vote on its tax cut for big business.
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Greg Costello, Curtin University
A new report shows building smaller houses as opposed to apartments in city fringes could provide more affordable housing.
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Education
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Shireen Daft, Macquarie University
Schools and students are often targeted during times of armed conflict. Abducted children can be recruited as soldiers and schools are ideal locations for military headquarters.
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Environment + Energy
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Penny van Oosterzee, James Cook University
Africa's famous animal migrations are increasingly blocked by fences, erected by farmers to keep their livestock safe from disease. But a new approach aims to deliver healthy beef and healthy wildlife.
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Cities
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Alan Morris, University of Technology Sydney
If local government is to deliver affordable housing, state and federal governments must assist. Even councils as powerful and well resourced as the City of Sydney cannot do it by themselves.
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Featured jobs
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RMIT University — Melbourne, Victoria
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University of Melbourne — Parkville, Victoria
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Deakin University — Newtown, Victoria
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Charles Darwin University — Casuarina, Northern Territory
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Featured events
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QT Hotel, 1 London Circuit, Canberra ACT, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, 2601, Australia — Australia New Zealand School of Government
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State Library Victoria, Experimedia, 328 Swanston Street, Melbourne, Victoria, 3000, Australia — La Trobe University
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General Lecture Theatre, the Quadrangle, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, 2006, Australia — University of Sydney
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The Shine Dome, Australian Academy of Science, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia — University of Melbourne
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