Brian Fallow provides an excellent look at the urgent need for cost containment in health and the problems this involves. He points out that rising health costs is a far bigger potential problem than superannuation. It is also far more difficult to solve as a simple shift in age eligibility would sort out most superannuation [...]

The editorial in the Herald today in support of an excess charge for ACC payments is an excellent, eminently sensible article. Unfortunately, in reality, this may be a little more difficult to achieve than it looks. GP’s and A&Ms already have a part-charge for most patients, as do most radiologists. The only place where you [...]

ACC seem to be planning to reduce the amount of payment they make on scans and allow the radiologists to charge co-payments to make up the difference. I have some sympathy for their dilemma. The number of MRIs ordered has risen steadily as orthopaedic surgeons tackle more and more varied soft tissue injuries. Orthopaedic surgeons [...]

I read today that Auckland’s largest after-hours clinic, White Cross Ascot A&M, wishes to get out of it’s arrangement with Auckland DHB that freezes the amount of co-payment they can charge for after-hours visits. The fact that the agreement was signed in November last year and has only 4 months to run, illustrates the frightening [...]