Grattan: Private hospitals less efficient than public

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Earlier this week, The Grattan Institute released research arguing that gouging by specialists at private hospitals is driving up private health insurance costs and premiums.

Interestingly, this report claimed that private hospitals are actually less efficient than their public hospital counterparts:

Private hospitals need to lift their game too. They are less efficient than public hospitals; their patients stay 9 per cent longer than public hospital patients with similar conditions. Assuming this 9 per cent stay excess corresponds to a similar cost excess, making private hospitals more efficient would reduce costs by about $1 billion each year and private health insurance premiums by about 5 per cent…

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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.