Financing aged care in Australia: Mitigating fiscal gaps and maintaining intergenerational equity. Aged care has been identified as a significant contributor to the growing fiscal problems predicted for Australian government finances during the next 10 to 20 years. This project will develop the cutting-edge modelling tools needed to allow Australia to make informed decisions about possible reforms in aged care financing. It will create significant national benefits by allowing detailed assessmen ....Financing aged care in Australia: Mitigating fiscal gaps and maintaining intergenerational equity. Aged care has been identified as a significant contributor to the growing fiscal problems predicted for Australian government finances during the next 10 to 20 years. This project will develop the cutting-edge modelling tools needed to allow Australia to make informed decisions about possible reforms in aged care financing. It will create significant national benefits by allowing detailed assessment of the distributional impact of a wide range of possible reforms, including how the outcomes of any policy change will affect disadvantaged sections of our society, whether different generations will be fairly treated, and the impact by gender.Read moreRead less
Determining the individual, community and societal impacts of compensable injury in Australia. This project will enhance our understanding of the individual, community and societal impacts of workplace and transport injury in Australia. The project will develop new impact measurement tools for application in workers' compensation and motor accident compensation schemes.
Incentives and performance in the health care system. Changes in financial incentives for health care providers will have direct effects on their behaviour, which in turn influences patients' health outcomes, quality of care, and access to health care for the population. The research will provide a richer understanding of the effects of incentives, and will influence policy on the design of incentives for health care providers in Australia. Changes in incentives will ensure patients receive mo ....Incentives and performance in the health care system. Changes in financial incentives for health care providers will have direct effects on their behaviour, which in turn influences patients' health outcomes, quality of care, and access to health care for the population. The research will provide a richer understanding of the effects of incentives, and will influence policy on the design of incentives for health care providers in Australia. Changes in incentives will ensure patients receive more appropriate, higher quality, and less costly health care, in the most appropriate settings, and delivered by the most appropriate health care providers. This will have direct effects on population health and well-being and the capacity of individuals to lead healthy and productive lives.Read moreRead less
The Distributional Impact of Health Outlays: Developing the Research and Modelling Infrastructure for Policy Makers. The Commonwealth recently concluded that the projected increase in health outlays over the next few decades is unaffordable. Policy makers are therefore going to face difficult decisions about health funding, the balance between government and consumer contributions to health costs, and about taxes (which fund public health outlays). They do not currently have adequate modelling t ....The Distributional Impact of Health Outlays: Developing the Research and Modelling Infrastructure for Policy Makers. The Commonwealth recently concluded that the projected increase in health outlays over the next few decades is unaffordable. Policy makers are therefore going to face difficult decisions about health funding, the balance between government and consumer contributions to health costs, and about taxes (which fund public health outlays). They do not currently have adequate modelling tools to help them make sound decisions. This project aims to redress this situation, by constructing a microsimulation model of the health sector, with a capacity to assess the likely distributional impact of possible policy changes and their revenue or expenditure implications.Read moreRead less
Drug Companies, their Patenting Strategies and High-Cost Pharmaceuticals: An Empirical Investigation. Pharmaceuticals are a vital part of clinical services that maintain and improve Australia's health; they are also costly, absorbing a substantial proportion of the national health expenditures. By conferring market protections, the patent system helps the manufacturers of pharmaceuticals to recoup the high costs of research associated with developing new products. Abuses of the patent system by ....Drug Companies, their Patenting Strategies and High-Cost Pharmaceuticals: An Empirical Investigation. Pharmaceuticals are a vital part of clinical services that maintain and improve Australia's health; they are also costly, absorbing a substantial proportion of the national health expenditures. By conferring market protections, the patent system helps the manufacturers of pharmaceuticals to recoup the high costs of research associated with developing new products. Abuses of the patent system by pharmaceutical manufacturers have the potential to stifle competition and inappropriately raise the costs of pharmaceuticals to society. This innovative, cross-disciplinary, research will investigate the existence of abusive patents and, if necessary, propose reforms that will prevent further abuse and reduce the size of the health budget. Read moreRead less
Rural General Practitioners in Australia: Costs, Returns and Relative Work Value of Rural Compared with Urban Private General Practitioners. Aims:
* To conduct a rurally focused study of GPs in Australia, to address rural GPs' concerns about remuneration, and consumers' concerns about access to rural GPs.
* To examine costs, prices, returns and work value differentials between rural and urban GPs.
Significance:
* The first systematic economic evaluation of rural GP remuneration and work valu ....Rural General Practitioners in Australia: Costs, Returns and Relative Work Value of Rural Compared with Urban Private General Practitioners. Aims:
* To conduct a rurally focused study of GPs in Australia, to address rural GPs' concerns about remuneration, and consumers' concerns about access to rural GPs.
* To examine costs, prices, returns and work value differentials between rural and urban GPs.
Significance:
* The first systematic economic evaluation of rural GP remuneration and work value in Australia.
* Reflection of the profession's geographical heterogeneity in policy recommendations.
Expected outcomes:
* Improved measurements of effects of geographcial location on costs, remuneration and relative work value of rural GPs.
* Improved understanding of effects of differential rates of GP bulk-billing.Read moreRead less
Ethnographies of housing: exploring the role of housing officers in public housing service provision. This research examines the everyday practice of public housing officers working in the Victorian Office of Housing. It aims to analyse the ways that workers exercise discretion, and the patterns of meanings that they construct, through their interactions with clients, departmental managers and other human service providers. It is the first ethnographic study of front-line work in housing servi ....Ethnographies of housing: exploring the role of housing officers in public housing service provision. This research examines the everyday practice of public housing officers working in the Victorian Office of Housing. It aims to analyse the ways that workers exercise discretion, and the patterns of meanings that they construct, through their interactions with clients, departmental managers and other human service providers. It is the first ethnographic study of front-line work in housing services in Australia and builds on comparable work done in the United Kingdom and America. The knowledge generated will inform innovation in public housing services, housing policy debates and emerging programs designed to integrate housing with other human services.Read moreRead less
Agreements as a mechanism for community participation in health policy: Understanding process and evaluating effectiveness. Improving the health of Indigenous people requires health policy that is inclusive and proactive rather than crisis driven. Formal agreements outline responsibilities and accountabilities in a shared framework that respects the rights of the parties involved. This project will evaluate the quality and effectiveness of agreements in Indigenous health by assessing their abil ....Agreements as a mechanism for community participation in health policy: Understanding process and evaluating effectiveness. Improving the health of Indigenous people requires health policy that is inclusive and proactive rather than crisis driven. Formal agreements outline responsibilities and accountabilities in a shared framework that respects the rights of the parties involved. This project will evaluate the quality and effectiveness of agreements in Indigenous health by assessing their ability to change the way governments and communities work together to improve health. The project will help ensure that future agreements reflect shared solutions for improving the health of Indigenous people in a respectful and effective way. It will also determine whether agreements work to bring community and government together to reduce inequalities in health.Read moreRead less
Using Law To Improve Population Health and the Quality of Health Care Services. There are huge gaps in our understanding of how legal rules and processes impact population health and the quality of health care services in Australia. This research program will begin to fill those gaps by addressing topical issues such as medical negligence litigation, the coroner's role in injury prevention, and the use of medical science in the courtroom. The findings will be useful to government policymakers, ....Using Law To Improve Population Health and the Quality of Health Care Services. There are huge gaps in our understanding of how legal rules and processes impact population health and the quality of health care services in Australia. This research program will begin to fill those gaps by addressing topical issues such as medical negligence litigation, the coroner's role in injury prevention, and the use of medical science in the courtroom. The findings will be useful to government policymakers, regulators, and judges, as well as professionals working in both the legal and health care fields. But most importantly, the findings will serve patients by helping to shape strategies and reforms that enable Australia's health care system to deliver services that are safer, of higher quality, fairer, and more efficient.Read moreRead less
Fear and licensing in Australia: Investigating the social licence to operate of an emerging coal seam gas industry. Australia’s nascent coal seam gas (CSG) industry is the site of substantial social tension. For some the industry can transform and safeguard national energy sources and fuel booming Asian exports. For others it damages both the environment and communities. This tension is vividly expressed by local protests and regulatory bans. Communities, mining companies and government invoke a ....Fear and licensing in Australia: Investigating the social licence to operate of an emerging coal seam gas industry. Australia’s nascent coal seam gas (CSG) industry is the site of substantial social tension. For some the industry can transform and safeguard national energy sources and fuel booming Asian exports. For others it damages both the environment and communities. This tension is vividly expressed by local protests and regulatory bans. Communities, mining companies and government invoke a 'social licence to operate' as fundamental to industry viability. This landmark project explores the concept of a social licence to operate in Australia's CSG industry to tease apart the dynamic risks, opportunities and tensions at work between corporations, rural and regional Australian communities and government, and offers policy and practice recommendations. Read moreRead less