Caesareans

The SMH has  a series this week going on caesareans – why they are on the increase in Australia, and increasing evidence of their long term riskiness.  About 30% of births in Australia are now by c-section. It’s a good series, which points out that as well as appearing to have higher risks of themselves [...]

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Two tiers for health care

There was a fairly impassioned article in the SMH today about how the Australian health care system has very definitely become a two-tier health care system.
“the wealthy and privately insured get timely health care and the rest, unless they are critically ill, can wait.”
Except, as I blogged recently, if you are a child, in which [...]

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Somewhat socialised medicine

Since Wednesday, Chatterboy has been in Royal North Shore Hospital being treated for pneumonia. On Friday, when he’d turned the corner, the doctors admitted to us that they had been quite worried about him on Thursday, when nothing seemed to be working, and he was lying there, listlessly, on oxygen, not wanting to talk. He’s [...]

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The greater good

We’ve been watching a depressing British TV show called Bodies – set in a hospital with an incompetent senior obstetrician. The storyline of the first series follows the various ways different doctors deal with the incompetence – from ignoring it, to trying to stop it happening subtly, to reporting it and then being suspended and [...]

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Blood donation

I walked past an ad trying to find blood donors today. As a frustrated blood donor, it annoyed me.
I used to be a vaguely regular blood donor. From the time that I turned 18 (and became eligible) to around 28, I would have given blood maybe once or twice a year (a perfect record is [...]

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Risk rating health insurance

After my previous post, and a few comments there, here’s some more detail on why I don’t think proper risk rated health insurance works particularly effectively for most people.
(by the way, the US market, from what I understand, doesn’t have individual health insurance rating to any large extent; you get your insurance coverage through your [...]

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Health Care

I’ve been pondering a mammoth post on health care for a while. I’m not sure if I’ve got it in me tonight. Or ever. So here’s a few thoughts. Mainly from my angle as an actuary who manages insurance companies for a living.
Most places that try to privatize health care to some extent do it [...]

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Medical care

I’d really like to write a thoughtful post about healthcare. I’m too tired, tonight, though. So I’ll just point you to a few US links.
Stayin’ Alive has an excellent series on what health insurance is, and why it’s a misnomer to call it insurance.
Half Changed World has a post on why she thinks the latest [...]

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Over-using the hospital system

I had a scary night last night. D (aged 2 and three quarters) woke up at 2 am needing to go to the toilet, was trying to yell out to get help, and discovered that he couldn’t talk, and could barely breathe. So I heard some strange barking noises, went to investigate, and discovered a [...]

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Obesity again

The ABS has released their regular survey of Australians and their health. There is a wealth of detail in there, but 62% of men, and 45% of women (up 4% each from 5 years ago) were overweight or obese. Mostly, the increase is in the obese proportion, as people move from normal weight to overweight, [...]

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