Nanny state or good public policy: Do the benefits of mandatory health programs justify the loss of consumer choice? Governments are increasingly turning to mandatory programs to improve health. Such programs are appealing because there are high health benefits from universal participation and low costs for promotion and monitoring the program. However, this apparent benefit relies on restriction of personal choice, which may impose welfare losses on consumers. Evaluations generally ignore loss ....Nanny state or good public policy: Do the benefits of mandatory health programs justify the loss of consumer choice? Governments are increasingly turning to mandatory programs to improve health. Such programs are appealing because there are high health benefits from universal participation and low costs for promotion and monitoring the program. However, this apparent benefit relies on restriction of personal choice, which may impose welfare losses on consumers. Evaluations generally ignore loss of choice, despite evidence suggesting consumers value the ability to choose. This study will estimate the impact and value this loss of consumer choice, explore program specific factors and consumer characteristics influencing the valuation, and determine whether and how restricted choice should be explicitly considered when evaluating public health programs.Read moreRead less
The training and job decisions of nurses: an integrated approach using panel surveys and dynamic discrete choice experiments. The nursing shortage in Australia is considered to be at crisis stage. The results of this study will lead to improved recruitment and retention of students in nursing, improved retention of new nurses in the health workforce, better design of nursing roles and job structure, and testing of the acceptability of changed health service delivery models. It will also lead to ....The training and job decisions of nurses: an integrated approach using panel surveys and dynamic discrete choice experiments. The nursing shortage in Australia is considered to be at crisis stage. The results of this study will lead to improved recruitment and retention of students in nursing, improved retention of new nurses in the health workforce, better design of nursing roles and job structure, and testing of the acceptability of changed health service delivery models. It will also lead to better health workforce planning. The study directly contributes to filling the gaps in health labour force quantitative studies identified in a recent Productivity Commission Report, and provides a basis for the implementation of the Commission's recommendations.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE140100719
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$383,312.00
Summary
The health cost of extended delays for inpatient treatment. Extended delays for elective procedures in public hospitals impede the National Research Priority of promoting and maintaining good health. Using unique large survey data linked to multiple years of health administrative records and the death registry, this project provides comprehensive costs of waiting, capturing both in-hospital and out of hospital health deterioration and impacts on medical expenditure. The estimation strategy takes ....The health cost of extended delays for inpatient treatment. Extended delays for elective procedures in public hospitals impede the National Research Priority of promoting and maintaining good health. Using unique large survey data linked to multiple years of health administrative records and the death registry, this project provides comprehensive costs of waiting, capturing both in-hospital and out of hospital health deterioration and impacts on medical expenditure. The estimation strategy takes into account patients’ initial choice to join the waiting list instead of going to a private hospital and allows for variation in the costs of waiting across patients. The results will have significant policy implications for waiting time reduction policies, health resource prioritisation and promotion of health equity.Read moreRead less
The Medicare Safety Net and its effect on efficiency, equity and welfare. This project aims to measure the welfare implications of social health insurance reforms. It will use the introduction of the Extended Medicare Safety Net to examine the effect of social insurance reforms on the efficiency and equity of Australia's health care system. The project expects to produce evidence on the partial and aggregate effects of the Medicare Safety Net and knowledge on the relationship between social insu ....The Medicare Safety Net and its effect on efficiency, equity and welfare. This project aims to measure the welfare implications of social health insurance reforms. It will use the introduction of the Extended Medicare Safety Net to examine the effect of social insurance reforms on the efficiency and equity of Australia's health care system. The project expects to produce evidence on the partial and aggregate effects of the Medicare Safety Net and knowledge on the relationship between social insurance and health system performance. In doing so, the research seeks to help policy makers to improve the design of social health insurance programmes to make the system more sustainable and equitable.Read moreRead less
Patient waiting times at public hospitals and the demand for private care. Public hospital waiting times compromise the objective of accessible health care for all Australians. Past policy focused on private insurance incentives to ease pressure on public hospitals. Current policy focuses on extra public provision. This will be the first Australian research to model the impact of waiting times on private health insurance and the choice between private and public hospital treatment. We will analy ....Patient waiting times at public hospitals and the demand for private care. Public hospital waiting times compromise the objective of accessible health care for all Australians. Past policy focused on private insurance incentives to ease pressure on public hospitals. Current policy focuses on extra public provision. This will be the first Australian research to model the impact of waiting times on private health insurance and the choice between private and public hospital treatment. We will analyse how waiting times differ by income, medical procedure and region, and quantify the benefits associated with different ways of reducing waiting lists. This research will provide an evidence base for effective policy design and lead to better targeting of health care investments.Read moreRead less
Modelling community preferences for health policy: how choice experiments can inform the organisation of acute health services for older Australians. This work will provide vital information on community preferences to inform health policy regarding how we should best organise acute healthcare for older Australians. It addresses one of the most pressing health policy issues in Australia: how to maintain a sustainable, equitable and responsive health care system, in the face of an ageing populati ....Modelling community preferences for health policy: how choice experiments can inform the organisation of acute health services for older Australians. This work will provide vital information on community preferences to inform health policy regarding how we should best organise acute healthcare for older Australians. It addresses one of the most pressing health policy issues in Australia: how to maintain a sustainable, equitable and responsive health care system, in the face of an ageing population.Read moreRead less
Community preferences for organ donation and allocation in Australia. This work will provide vital information on the Australian public's attitudes and preferences towards organ donation and allocation strategies, and inform the development of a national organ donation strategy that considers the public's preferences for different policies to increase organ donor rates. This project will directly address the National Research Priority of 'promoting and maintaining good health'; increasing the a ....Community preferences for organ donation and allocation in Australia. This work will provide vital information on the Australian public's attitudes and preferences towards organ donation and allocation strategies, and inform the development of a national organ donation strategy that considers the public's preferences for different policies to increase organ donor rates. This project will directly address the National Research Priority of 'promoting and maintaining good health'; increasing the availability of donor organs, and improving the equity and transparency of organ allocation in Australia will lead to improved health outcomes for patients on transplant waiting lists around Australia, and improved health outcomes for patients not previously eligible for transplant (e.g. some dialysis patients)Read moreRead less
Investigating Linkages Among Individual Decision Rules, Properties of Experimental Designs and Choice Models In Environmental Economics Applications. Discrete Choice Experiments or 'stated preference' (SP) surveys are increasingly being used to estimate public benefits of proposed environmental policy changes. The accuracy of environmental policy analyses and forecasts of welfare changes based on SP models depends heavily on unbiased parameter estimates. Our project aims to assess what happens i ....Investigating Linkages Among Individual Decision Rules, Properties of Experimental Designs and Choice Models In Environmental Economics Applications. Discrete Choice Experiments or 'stated preference' (SP) surveys are increasingly being used to estimate public benefits of proposed environmental policy changes. The accuracy of environmental policy analyses and forecasts of welfare changes based on SP models depends heavily on unbiased parameter estimates. Our project aims to assess what happens if common assumptions about consumer preferences in SP surveys are violated. We also study whether exploratory analysis methods can detect the violations to guide future research and applications. Successful completion of this project will lead to more accurate policy analyses and forecasts based on discrete choice models.Read moreRead less