12 February 2016
Per Capita’s David Hetherington spoke to Radio Adelaide on Friday to discuss privatising Medicare payments.
Says David: “It’s not at all clear that there are great savings to be made. Governments have a very poor record when it comes to privatising big IT systems…You end up paying more for a system that looks similar.”
“A big study done in the 2000s of 6 large IT outsizing projects in Australia which found that 4 lost a lot of money and 2 had net marginal benefit.”
“When Abbott’s Commission of Audit looked at it, they described outsourcing of payments as potentially highly risky, and I think they were right,” says David to Ian Newton.
“There clearly is a challenge in health spending and the way we finance health spending. In most countries health spending grows much faster than GDP, and it’s true in Australia. Part of this is fixing efficiencies in health, and part is finding revenue. The tax reform debate has jumped around a lot in the last few years. But we need to find ways to fund this growing demand on our health system, particularly with an ageing population.”
Click on the link below to go to the full audio.
