Priorities of health policy: cost shifting or population health

The theme of this paper is that recent and proposed health policy in Australia has focused upon issues of relatively minor significance while failing to adequately address major inequities and system deficiencies which have significant effects upon mortality, the quality of life and the fairness of the distribution of services. The paper briefly comments upon some recent initiatives which appear to be more concerned with the distribution of income and costs than with the fairness or efficiency of the distribution of health or health services. These policies are contrasted with five problem areas in the health system requiring urgent reform but which have been largely neglected or insufficiently addressed.