Hands off our health system, Mr Turnbull

Monday 9 November 2015

Following reports yesterday that the Coalition Government is looking to permit private health insurers to cover the costs of GP visits and other primary care, thus shift Australia towards a US-style health system, I thought it timely to present the OECD’s latest health data on Australia, which benchmarks Australia’s health system against other developed nations.

According to the OECD, Australia performs well in terms of overall population health status. At 82.2 years, life expectancy is the sixth highest in the OECD. The below charts summarise the situation, with Australia presented in red against the OECD average (blue):

The full text of this article is available to MacroBusiness subscribers

$1 for your first month, then:

$24.99 / month

$249 / year

Cancel at any time through our billing provider, Stripe

About the author

Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness. Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.