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The government spends about $6.7 billion of dollars a year subsidising private health insurance premiums. We get carrots to entice us to sign up, and sticks if we don’t. Then there’s the $6 billion or so the government spends each year to fund services in private hospitals.
The idea is to ease pressure on the public system. Private health insurance is meant to divert patients who can afford it into private hospitals, easing surgery waiting times for everyone else in the public system. Waiting lists for knee operations or cancer surgery are supposed to shrink.
But new research turns all that on its head. Even if tens of thousands more Australians buy private health insurance, public hospital waiting lists barely shift from the average 69 days. Waiting lists are on average just eight hours shorter.
In other words, when it comes to shifting waiting times in public hospitals, private health insurance barely makes a dent, write Yuting Zhang and her colleagues from the University of Melbourne.
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Anna Evangeli
Deputy Health Editor
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Yuting Zhang, The University of Melbourne; Jongsay Yong, The University of Melbourne; Ou Yang, The University of Melbourne
Governments spend billions of dollars every year to encourage us to take up private cover. But our research shows this does little to reduce pressure on the public system.
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Mark Kenny, Australian National University
Leaders projecting command and control have long been the standard in Australian politics. But the trouble arises when strong and successful leaders hang on for too long.
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Janneke Blijlevens, RMIT University; Angel Zhong, RMIT University; Lauren Gurrieri, RMIT University
Justifying purchases can make parting with money easier but a viral TikTok trend could leave girls spending more than they have.
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Robert Phiddian, Flinders University
Bruce Petty woke editorial cartooning from a sleepy period telling fairly anodyne jokes and turned it into a mode of serious – if also often hilarious – satirical commentary on politics and society.
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Lucas Walsh, Monash University; Joanne Gleeson, Monash University
Many young people feel unsure and overwhelmed about life after school. A new questionnaire can help parents, teachers and carers talk to students about their career choices.
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Gail Iles, RMIT University
Space missions are still difficult, dangerous and risky – but it’s still early days in the human journey beyond our planet.
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Rohan Fisher, Charles Darwin University; Boyd Elston
Deserts in Australia burn – and burn big – if fuel is left to build up. But this year, Indigenous rangers across the deserts have burned huge tracts early to make Country healthier.
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Jodi McAlister, Deakin University; Amy Burge, University of Birmingham
An introduction to the sexy, scandalous world of bonkbusters – and why the 1980s phenomenon is enjoying a resurgence.
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Politics + Society
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Julia Coffey, University of Newcastle; David Farrugia, Deakin University; Lena Molnar, University of Newcastle; Megan Sharp, The University of Melbourne; Steven Threadgold, University of Newcastle
Our research with 124 Australian hospitality staff found women bar workers were routinely seen as ‘better suited’ to manage the threat of violence - which is both risky and exploitative.
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Health + Medicine
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Lise Ludwig Mogensen, Western Sydney University
We spoke to young people with intellectual disability. They had the same goals for life after high school as most people their age. But they felt ‘stuck’.
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Science + Technology
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Melissa Starling, University of Sydney
Dogs have rich emotional lives in which they can coexist with different species, and even forge bonds outside of their own species.
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Environment + Energy
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John White, Deakin University; Raylene Cooke, Deakin University
There’s shocking new evidence of rodenticide poisoning in Australia’s nocturnal predatory birds. High concentrations of the active ingredients were found in 92% of the 60 dead birds they tested.
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