Director, Health Program, Grattan Institute
Professor Stephen Duckett is Director of the Health Program at Grattan Institute and Emeritus Professor of Health Policy at La Trobe University. He has held top operational and policy leadership positions in health care in Australia and Canada, including as Secretary of what is now the Commonwealth Department of Health and Ageing. He has a reputation for creativity, evidence-based innovation and reform in areas ranging from the introduction of activity-based funding for hospitals to new systems of accountability for the safety of hospital care. An economist, he is a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia and of the Academy of Health and Medical Sciences.
What is the hospital funding agreement politicians are talking about today?
Dec 06, 2023 07:47 am UTC| Politics
National Cabinet meets today to discuss three big issues in Commonwealth-state financial relations: GST allocation, National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) funding, and a Commonwealth government proposal to kick-start...
Nov 28, 2023 23:15 pm UTC| Health
When things are going bad in the health system, we are reassured weve got one of the best health systems in the world. But were rarely told where we actually stand relative to others. A new report from the Organisation...
When aged care workers earn just $22 an hour, a one-off payment won’t fix the wage problem
Feb 02, 2022 08:57 am UTC| Economy
The federal governments promise of up to A$800 between now and May for aged care workers is a short-term political fix designed to cover over a long-term policy failure. Numerous reports have pointed out Australias more...
Vaccine Rollout 2.0: Australia needs to do 3 things differently
Jul 01, 2021 03:19 am UTC| Health
Australias vaccine rollout started just over four months ago. It has not gone well, to put it mildly. To date, only 24% of the population have had at least one dose of a vaccine, and nearly 5% 1.2 million people have...
New aged care data on hospitalisation rates show significant problem areas in residential aged care
Feb 02, 2021 13:13 pm UTC| Life Health
The Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety released new data overnight comparing hospitalisation rates from residential aged care facilities. The report found 36.9% of nursing home residents presented to an...
Young people dropping private health hurts insurers most, not public hospitals
Feb 19, 2020 01:49 am UTC| Insights & Views Health
Young Australians are abandoning private health insurance in droves. And the overall decline in the percentage of the population with private coverage is continuing. New data for the three months to the end of 2019,...
How do you stop the youth exodus from private health insurance? Cut premiums for under-55s
Dec 04, 2019 11:26 am UTC| Insights & Views Business Health
Young people dont see private health insurance as good value for money. And theyre right: the cost of their expected use of private health care is significantly below what they pay in insurance premiums. Unsurprisingly,...