Common fabric could save lives from most deadly disease
Turning silk like fairy floss into artificial blood vessels will provide a lifeline for cardiovascular patients, scientists say.
Cardiovascular disease is Australia's top killer, contributing to one in four deaths.
But after almost a decade of developing silk artificial blood vessels, researchers are confident they have found a solution to lower the numbers.
In a world-first test, Australians scientists were able to successfully put a silk blood vessel into a sheep in December.
Now they are turning their focus to using one of nature's strongest materials in humans.
"We're the first to bring this natural biomaterial this far along the translational pathway," University of Sydney cardiovascular bioengineering professor Steven Wise told AAP on Wednesday.
"Now we're at a place where we're in sheep and pigs, which are quite like a human."
The vessel starts as a silk cocoon plucked from a farm where it is cut, dried and washed to form a liquid.
It is then spat through a minuscule tube onto a cylindrical roll, where it forms a fluff similar to fairy floss.
Once the fairy-floss solution solidifies, it can be used in bypass surgery as a long-term artery or vein.
The technology will replace current artificial blood vessels, which are made from Gore-Tex, the same material as rain jackets.
"(The plastic is) really bad for you," Professor Wise said.
"They cause blood to clot, so our strategy is to build with a natural material that does belong in your body."
The scientific discovery comes as shovels dig into the ground at the University of Sydney to build a new biomedical centre.
Planned to be completed by 2028, the $780 million Sydney Biomedical Accelerator aims to find solutions to complicated health issues such as cancer and deadly diseases.
NSW is now in the box seat to advance medical technology, according to state Health Minister Ryan Park.
"It's been said for a long time that Victoria is the heart of medical research in this country," he said.
"This puts us back in front of centre in this race.
"This is putting money in our mouth of where we need to go ... (so) our communities can live the most healthy lives possible."
The research hub will play a key role in reducing cardiovascular disease worldwide, Sydney Local Health District chief executive Deb Willcox said.
The disease kills almost 18 million people per year globally, the World Health Organisation says.
"It's an enormous burden across the globe," Ms Willcox said.
"The work that this building bring us will bring treatments forward, provide new medication and procedures, and reduce the burden on people's lives."
The Sydney Biomedical Accelerator is expected to house more than 1200 researchers and clinician scientists once opened.
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7NEWS
2 hours ago
- 7NEWS
Social media ban for children is ‘destined to fail' unless parents address their own smart phone addiction, pyschologist warns
Australia is just six months away from bringing in a world-leading law to ban children under 16 from social media but experts say more needs to be done before it comes into effect. Psychologist Danielle Einstein, who briefed the draft legislation for the ban, was on Weekend Sunrise on Saturday to address how it could work. Previously Einstein warned the ban would 'fail miserably' unless the federal government tackles screen addiction first. 'We need a few different things. First of all, we need doctors and psychologists asking patients when they come in with mental health issues about their tech use,' she told Weekend Sunrise. 'It should just be part of normal conversation — 'let's have a look, how many hours were you on here?' 'It's a part of the way we are trying to handle ourselves, and if someone has anxiety and depression, and you miss it because it's not seen as alright to ask about it and the doctors are embarrassed or if the patient makes it seem as if it's not OK (for asking).' Einstein said she didn't mean doctors had to go into extreme detail of how a person uses social media and technology but said conversations around tech use needed to be a part of a 'digital health check' in the same way doctors use a suicide screening. She also said a big public health campaign would be needed to 'expose the addictive' nature of social media and the corresponding health effects it may have on Australians. 'Both students and parents may realise that this isn't actually healthy for them,' Einstein said. For parents wondering what to do now, before the ban is imposed, Einstein encouraged adults to lead by example and cut back on their own technology use. 'The most important thing a parent can do is model,' she said. 'Parents need to be aware of what we do when we walk into the house (or when) at the dinner table: 'Do I have a phone that's near me?'' Einstein said using phones during arguments between parents to show the other person they were wrong had also become common practice but this could be easily stopped if phones are put out of sight. Despite the potential difficulties with executing the ban, Einstein said the federal government's decision to prevent harm to young Australian's should be looked at as a 'tremendous success' as other countries look to follow our example. 'We are leading the world, and we should be very proud of that,' Einstein said. 'Around the world, we've seen people wake up and start to question tech use. 'In Spain, there are paediatric guidelines coming out to show children from zero to six shouldn't have technology, aside for supervised use.' The social media ban for children under 16 years old is expected to come into effect in December 2025. The ban was first announced by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese last year, who said he was 'calling time on it' due to a number of tragic deaths relating to bullying on social media. But there is yet no guarantee technologies aimed at blocking young kids from social media will always work, according to early trial results. While the early findings of a federal government-commissioned trial found age assurance technologies are available, there's no silver bullet. 'Age assurance can be done in Australia and can be private, robust and effective,' the report found. 'We found a plethora of approaches that fit use cases in different ways. 'But we did not find a single ubiquitous solution that would suit all use cases, nor did we find solutions that were guaranteed to be effective in all deployments.' Under the social media ban, platforms will have to take reasonable steps to prevent under-16s from creating new accounts and could face millions in fines for systemic breaches of the new rules. Cabinet minister Murray Watt maintained the need for restrictions around social media. 'The Australian people believe that we do need to see some restrictions around social media use when it comes to young people,' he told ABC News on Friday. 'Unfortunately, it has become an insidious force, both for young people and more widely.' Australia's ban is world-leading and, in the aftermath of the November passage of federal laws, other nations indicated a desire to emulate the measure. However, the legislation does not indicate how exactly the ban will be executed. The report found parental control and consent systems could be effective when first introduced. But there is 'limited evidence' that they would be effective as children grow up or allow kids the right to participate in the breadth of digital experiences. Even after the coalition helped secure an amendment to ensure Australians wouldn't have to provide any form of government identification to verify their age, the trial found there was a risk of privacy breaches. Some age assurance service providers had over-anticipated the needs of regulators and built tools that led to an 'unnecessary and disproportionate collection and retention of data'. Opposition communications spokeswoman Melissa McIntosh has urged Labor to confirm what technology or verification tools will be used to protect kids online. 'No more young lives can be lost or families destroyed because of the toxicity of social media,' she said in a statement. The Age Assurance Technology Trial's final report is expected to be published later in 2025.
The Advertiser
a day ago
- The Advertiser
Gen Z urged to not neglect dental care once they leave home
As house prices and cost-of-living pressures delay young Australians from moving out, a growing number of parents are left with the burden of covering the essentials - including dental care - for much longer than expected. Parents need to keep dental care on the radar even after their children turn 18, especially when those children are still living at home. As a dentist, I see far too many young adults fall through the cracks once they leave high school. Regular dental visits, once booked by parents, paid for, and prioritised, suddenly disappear from the calendar. At a time when young people are navigating new independence, study stress, and tighter budgets, oral health often becomes an afterthought. But it shouldn't be. Dental care must be treated like any other essential, right alongside GP check-ups, mental health support, and nutrition. MORE OPINION: How different would Australians feel if the system was behind them? The consequences of neglect are often invisible at first, but they build slowly - decay, gum disease, jaw issues, and costly emergencies that could have been prevented with a simple clean and check-up. Before kids move out, parents should make sure that dental health is part of the transition plan. Book that last appointment. Start the conversation. Help them understand that just because their teeth look fine doesn't mean they are fine. Of course, the transition to adulthood doesn't come with perfect hygiene habits but you often see adults in their forties present with problems that could've been prevented in their teens. A University of Melbourne study published in March revealed once people reach the age of 15 to 20, a significant drop in dental visits occurred. Researchers tracked more than 11,000 people over several years and found many patients didn't return once they became independent, and often for years. The pattern seen here in Australia isn't isolated. A previous study from New Zealand reported a similar drop in regular dental visits among young working-age adults. These findings are consistent with patterns commonly seen in this age group, shaped by time pressures, financial stress and the false belief that you only need a dentist when something hurts. There's a belief that healthy-looking teeth don't need attention, which means too many people are missing the potential early signs of decay and gum disease. Changes in daily routines - moving out of the family home, taking on study and full-time work often marks the beginning of the decline in dental care. Once children are out on their own, and in charge of their own health insurance, the health safety net can disappear. If you're a young adult reading this, remember, your health isn't on hold just because life got busier. By the time pain shows up, treatment can be complex and more expensive. The solution? Reconnecting oral health with the broader wellness narrative Gen Z already embraces. We talk a lot about mental fitness, skin care, and gut health - teeth need to be part of that conversation. As house prices and cost-of-living pressures delay young Australians from moving out, a growing number of parents are left with the burden of covering the essentials - including dental care - for much longer than expected. Parents need to keep dental care on the radar even after their children turn 18, especially when those children are still living at home. As a dentist, I see far too many young adults fall through the cracks once they leave high school. Regular dental visits, once booked by parents, paid for, and prioritised, suddenly disappear from the calendar. At a time when young people are navigating new independence, study stress, and tighter budgets, oral health often becomes an afterthought. But it shouldn't be. Dental care must be treated like any other essential, right alongside GP check-ups, mental health support, and nutrition. MORE OPINION: How different would Australians feel if the system was behind them? The consequences of neglect are often invisible at first, but they build slowly - decay, gum disease, jaw issues, and costly emergencies that could have been prevented with a simple clean and check-up. Before kids move out, parents should make sure that dental health is part of the transition plan. Book that last appointment. Start the conversation. Help them understand that just because their teeth look fine doesn't mean they are fine. Of course, the transition to adulthood doesn't come with perfect hygiene habits but you often see adults in their forties present with problems that could've been prevented in their teens. A University of Melbourne study published in March revealed once people reach the age of 15 to 20, a significant drop in dental visits occurred. Researchers tracked more than 11,000 people over several years and found many patients didn't return once they became independent, and often for years. The pattern seen here in Australia isn't isolated. A previous study from New Zealand reported a similar drop in regular dental visits among young working-age adults. These findings are consistent with patterns commonly seen in this age group, shaped by time pressures, financial stress and the false belief that you only need a dentist when something hurts. There's a belief that healthy-looking teeth don't need attention, which means too many people are missing the potential early signs of decay and gum disease. Changes in daily routines - moving out of the family home, taking on study and full-time work often marks the beginning of the decline in dental care. Once children are out on their own, and in charge of their own health insurance, the health safety net can disappear. If you're a young adult reading this, remember, your health isn't on hold just because life got busier. By the time pain shows up, treatment can be complex and more expensive. The solution? Reconnecting oral health with the broader wellness narrative Gen Z already embraces. We talk a lot about mental fitness, skin care, and gut health - teeth need to be part of that conversation. As house prices and cost-of-living pressures delay young Australians from moving out, a growing number of parents are left with the burden of covering the essentials - including dental care - for much longer than expected. Parents need to keep dental care on the radar even after their children turn 18, especially when those children are still living at home. As a dentist, I see far too many young adults fall through the cracks once they leave high school. Regular dental visits, once booked by parents, paid for, and prioritised, suddenly disappear from the calendar. At a time when young people are navigating new independence, study stress, and tighter budgets, oral health often becomes an afterthought. But it shouldn't be. Dental care must be treated like any other essential, right alongside GP check-ups, mental health support, and nutrition. MORE OPINION: How different would Australians feel if the system was behind them? The consequences of neglect are often invisible at first, but they build slowly - decay, gum disease, jaw issues, and costly emergencies that could have been prevented with a simple clean and check-up. Before kids move out, parents should make sure that dental health is part of the transition plan. Book that last appointment. Start the conversation. Help them understand that just because their teeth look fine doesn't mean they are fine. Of course, the transition to adulthood doesn't come with perfect hygiene habits but you often see adults in their forties present with problems that could've been prevented in their teens. A University of Melbourne study published in March revealed once people reach the age of 15 to 20, a significant drop in dental visits occurred. Researchers tracked more than 11,000 people over several years and found many patients didn't return once they became independent, and often for years. The pattern seen here in Australia isn't isolated. A previous study from New Zealand reported a similar drop in regular dental visits among young working-age adults. These findings are consistent with patterns commonly seen in this age group, shaped by time pressures, financial stress and the false belief that you only need a dentist when something hurts. There's a belief that healthy-looking teeth don't need attention, which means too many people are missing the potential early signs of decay and gum disease. Changes in daily routines - moving out of the family home, taking on study and full-time work often marks the beginning of the decline in dental care. Once children are out on their own, and in charge of their own health insurance, the health safety net can disappear. If you're a young adult reading this, remember, your health isn't on hold just because life got busier. By the time pain shows up, treatment can be complex and more expensive. The solution? Reconnecting oral health with the broader wellness narrative Gen Z already embraces. We talk a lot about mental fitness, skin care, and gut health - teeth need to be part of that conversation. As house prices and cost-of-living pressures delay young Australians from moving out, a growing number of parents are left with the burden of covering the essentials - including dental care - for much longer than expected. Parents need to keep dental care on the radar even after their children turn 18, especially when those children are still living at home. As a dentist, I see far too many young adults fall through the cracks once they leave high school. Regular dental visits, once booked by parents, paid for, and prioritised, suddenly disappear from the calendar. At a time when young people are navigating new independence, study stress, and tighter budgets, oral health often becomes an afterthought. But it shouldn't be. Dental care must be treated like any other essential, right alongside GP check-ups, mental health support, and nutrition. MORE OPINION: How different would Australians feel if the system was behind them? The consequences of neglect are often invisible at first, but they build slowly - decay, gum disease, jaw issues, and costly emergencies that could have been prevented with a simple clean and check-up. Before kids move out, parents should make sure that dental health is part of the transition plan. Book that last appointment. Start the conversation. Help them understand that just because their teeth look fine doesn't mean they are fine. Of course, the transition to adulthood doesn't come with perfect hygiene habits but you often see adults in their forties present with problems that could've been prevented in their teens. A University of Melbourne study published in March revealed once people reach the age of 15 to 20, a significant drop in dental visits occurred. Researchers tracked more than 11,000 people over several years and found many patients didn't return once they became independent, and often for years. The pattern seen here in Australia isn't isolated. A previous study from New Zealand reported a similar drop in regular dental visits among young working-age adults. These findings are consistent with patterns commonly seen in this age group, shaped by time pressures, financial stress and the false belief that you only need a dentist when something hurts. There's a belief that healthy-looking teeth don't need attention, which means too many people are missing the potential early signs of decay and gum disease. Changes in daily routines - moving out of the family home, taking on study and full-time work often marks the beginning of the decline in dental care. Once children are out on their own, and in charge of their own health insurance, the health safety net can disappear. If you're a young adult reading this, remember, your health isn't on hold just because life got busier. By the time pain shows up, treatment can be complex and more expensive. The solution? Reconnecting oral health with the broader wellness narrative Gen Z already embraces. We talk a lot about mental fitness, skin care, and gut health - teeth need to be part of that conversation.
The Advertiser
a day ago
- The Advertiser
Too many of us are not as lucky as me. And that's extremely risky
My GP bulk bills me. My status has been grandmothered. It's a bloody miracle and I'm grateful. I'd personally like to thank former prime minister Gough Whitlam. Medibank, the forerunner to Medicare, was his brainchild. It began in July 1975. But after the Whitlam government was dismissed, the Fraser government buggered it up. Levies on incomes unless you were privately insured. Nine years later, former prime minister Bob Hawke (the National Museum of Australia calls him Robert. Way too formal) established Medicare. He said: "With this historic initiative, all Australians now have a new, simpler and fairer health insurance system." Well, kind of. Stephen Duckett, the absolute full-bottle on Medicare over decades, tells me that bulk-billing is crucial. We had a peak five years ago and it's been downhill from there. "There are good grounds not to have out-of-pocket payments for GPs. And right now, it's a lottery," he says. Duckett's right. When you front up at your GP, you don't automatically know whether you will be in the lucky group to be bulk billed. "You might be asking when you front up," he says. But it's the uncertainty, the possible embarrassment of signing up to pay money you don't have. He commends any government's attempt to get practices to be 100 per cent bulk-billing because then patients get 100 per cent certainty. And getting that 100 per cent certainty about your healthcare matters. Too many of us are not that lucky. News this week that Canberrans are now paying out an average of just over $62 in out-of-pocket fees to see their GPs is unnerving. If you don't have the sixty-odd bucks, you don't go. And that's extremely risky. British research shows us (and Australian research backs it up) that continuity of care is associated with higher life expectancy. If you don't get that care, you die. Well, we all die - but without regular contact with a regular GP, you have a shorter life expectancy. Good access, lower cost, the necessary number of GPs per head of population - these are all associated with longer lives. The cost of visiting the GP is putting many of us off from getting essential health care. Late last year, the ABS reported a rise in the number of people who reported not visiting the GP because of cost-of-living pressures. In the financial year ending June 22, 3.5 per cent of people either put off or didn't see a GP when they needed to because of the cost. Three years later, that number had risen to 8.8 per cent. In February, the gentle warming-up period of the election before everyone got stroppy and out of control, Labor pledged $8.5 billion for Medicare, so all of us would have access to bulk billing by 2030. The plan, according to Labor, would produce patient savings of up to $859 million a year by 2030. It's Medicare's 41st birthday and this investment, if the bulk billing strategy works, is a huge birthday gift to those of us who benefit from universal health care. That is, all of us. In 1984, the annual GP bulk-billing rate was 51 per cent. It hit a 40-year high of 94 per cent in April 2020, under a Coalition government. Of course, some of that was due to special COVID items. Don't want to go back there if COVID is what it takes. But what can we do to make sure our GPs are protected too? They need to be properly remunerated for what is often grinding work with long hours. Good thing I never ended up as a GP. Imagine having to be patient with patients for hours at a time. Having to be kind to the miserable. Just doing that with your own kids is quite enough, let alone with anyone else's. Now we also have to get to work on specialist fees. I've written elsewhere about the insanity of those fees. This week, the Grattan Institute revealed more than one in five Australians who saw a specialist in 2023 was charged an extreme fee at least once. It also said one in 10 Australians who saw a psychiatrist ended up paying $400 in out-of-pocket costs for their initial consultation alone. It also had a list of recommendations. My vengeful self enjoyed some of those, such as stripping Medicare rebates from specialists charging excessive fees, more than others. And I love the idea of the Medical Cost Finder website, designed so people can compare out-of-pocket fees doctors charge for specialist procedures. But last year it was revealed that five years after the site launched, just 20 doctors out of the 36,000 specialists nationwide provided their fees for listing. MORE JENNA PRICE: There are some useful bits, though. For example, your first specialist appointment will see you pay just under $200, and on average, $117 out of pocket. The rest is paid by Medicare. That's across the country. The most expensive is the ACT where the typical specialist fee is $285. Patients will find themselves two hundred bucks out of pocket. I am not entirely sure how the government will sort this out but we urgently need an overhaul of what we pay for our health. Jim Chalmers is talking tax reform and maybe we need some kind of a sliding scale for people whose super balances are above $3 million, more than he's proposing right now. Universities have a part to play too. Maybe they should let more students into medical schools. Maybe free tuition but then bond students to rural and regional areas for 10 years? Are specialist colleges acting in the best interests of Australians? Or in their own financial best interest? I dunno. But whatever we are doing isn't working. May the government's plans work - and once GPs are sorted, let's start working on the rest of the health industry. My GP bulk bills me. My status has been grandmothered. It's a bloody miracle and I'm grateful. I'd personally like to thank former prime minister Gough Whitlam. Medibank, the forerunner to Medicare, was his brainchild. It began in July 1975. But after the Whitlam government was dismissed, the Fraser government buggered it up. Levies on incomes unless you were privately insured. Nine years later, former prime minister Bob Hawke (the National Museum of Australia calls him Robert. Way too formal) established Medicare. He said: "With this historic initiative, all Australians now have a new, simpler and fairer health insurance system." Well, kind of. Stephen Duckett, the absolute full-bottle on Medicare over decades, tells me that bulk-billing is crucial. We had a peak five years ago and it's been downhill from there. "There are good grounds not to have out-of-pocket payments for GPs. And right now, it's a lottery," he says. Duckett's right. When you front up at your GP, you don't automatically know whether you will be in the lucky group to be bulk billed. "You might be asking when you front up," he says. But it's the uncertainty, the possible embarrassment of signing up to pay money you don't have. He commends any government's attempt to get practices to be 100 per cent bulk-billing because then patients get 100 per cent certainty. And getting that 100 per cent certainty about your healthcare matters. Too many of us are not that lucky. News this week that Canberrans are now paying out an average of just over $62 in out-of-pocket fees to see their GPs is unnerving. If you don't have the sixty-odd bucks, you don't go. And that's extremely risky. British research shows us (and Australian research backs it up) that continuity of care is associated with higher life expectancy. If you don't get that care, you die. Well, we all die - but without regular contact with a regular GP, you have a shorter life expectancy. Good access, lower cost, the necessary number of GPs per head of population - these are all associated with longer lives. The cost of visiting the GP is putting many of us off from getting essential health care. Late last year, the ABS reported a rise in the number of people who reported not visiting the GP because of cost-of-living pressures. In the financial year ending June 22, 3.5 per cent of people either put off or didn't see a GP when they needed to because of the cost. Three years later, that number had risen to 8.8 per cent. In February, the gentle warming-up period of the election before everyone got stroppy and out of control, Labor pledged $8.5 billion for Medicare, so all of us would have access to bulk billing by 2030. The plan, according to Labor, would produce patient savings of up to $859 million a year by 2030. It's Medicare's 41st birthday and this investment, if the bulk billing strategy works, is a huge birthday gift to those of us who benefit from universal health care. That is, all of us. In 1984, the annual GP bulk-billing rate was 51 per cent. It hit a 40-year high of 94 per cent in April 2020, under a Coalition government. Of course, some of that was due to special COVID items. Don't want to go back there if COVID is what it takes. But what can we do to make sure our GPs are protected too? They need to be properly remunerated for what is often grinding work with long hours. Good thing I never ended up as a GP. Imagine having to be patient with patients for hours at a time. Having to be kind to the miserable. Just doing that with your own kids is quite enough, let alone with anyone else's. Now we also have to get to work on specialist fees. I've written elsewhere about the insanity of those fees. This week, the Grattan Institute revealed more than one in five Australians who saw a specialist in 2023 was charged an extreme fee at least once. It also said one in 10 Australians who saw a psychiatrist ended up paying $400 in out-of-pocket costs for their initial consultation alone. It also had a list of recommendations. My vengeful self enjoyed some of those, such as stripping Medicare rebates from specialists charging excessive fees, more than others. And I love the idea of the Medical Cost Finder website, designed so people can compare out-of-pocket fees doctors charge for specialist procedures. But last year it was revealed that five years after the site launched, just 20 doctors out of the 36,000 specialists nationwide provided their fees for listing. MORE JENNA PRICE: There are some useful bits, though. For example, your first specialist appointment will see you pay just under $200, and on average, $117 out of pocket. The rest is paid by Medicare. That's across the country. The most expensive is the ACT where the typical specialist fee is $285. Patients will find themselves two hundred bucks out of pocket. I am not entirely sure how the government will sort this out but we urgently need an overhaul of what we pay for our health. Jim Chalmers is talking tax reform and maybe we need some kind of a sliding scale for people whose super balances are above $3 million, more than he's proposing right now. Universities have a part to play too. Maybe they should let more students into medical schools. Maybe free tuition but then bond students to rural and regional areas for 10 years? Are specialist colleges acting in the best interests of Australians? Or in their own financial best interest? I dunno. But whatever we are doing isn't working. May the government's plans work - and once GPs are sorted, let's start working on the rest of the health industry. My GP bulk bills me. My status has been grandmothered. It's a bloody miracle and I'm grateful. I'd personally like to thank former prime minister Gough Whitlam. Medibank, the forerunner to Medicare, was his brainchild. It began in July 1975. But after the Whitlam government was dismissed, the Fraser government buggered it up. Levies on incomes unless you were privately insured. Nine years later, former prime minister Bob Hawke (the National Museum of Australia calls him Robert. Way too formal) established Medicare. He said: "With this historic initiative, all Australians now have a new, simpler and fairer health insurance system." Well, kind of. Stephen Duckett, the absolute full-bottle on Medicare over decades, tells me that bulk-billing is crucial. We had a peak five years ago and it's been downhill from there. "There are good grounds not to have out-of-pocket payments for GPs. And right now, it's a lottery," he says. Duckett's right. When you front up at your GP, you don't automatically know whether you will be in the lucky group to be bulk billed. "You might be asking when you front up," he says. But it's the uncertainty, the possible embarrassment of signing up to pay money you don't have. He commends any government's attempt to get practices to be 100 per cent bulk-billing because then patients get 100 per cent certainty. And getting that 100 per cent certainty about your healthcare matters. Too many of us are not that lucky. News this week that Canberrans are now paying out an average of just over $62 in out-of-pocket fees to see their GPs is unnerving. If you don't have the sixty-odd bucks, you don't go. And that's extremely risky. British research shows us (and Australian research backs it up) that continuity of care is associated with higher life expectancy. If you don't get that care, you die. Well, we all die - but without regular contact with a regular GP, you have a shorter life expectancy. Good access, lower cost, the necessary number of GPs per head of population - these are all associated with longer lives. The cost of visiting the GP is putting many of us off from getting essential health care. Late last year, the ABS reported a rise in the number of people who reported not visiting the GP because of cost-of-living pressures. In the financial year ending June 22, 3.5 per cent of people either put off or didn't see a GP when they needed to because of the cost. Three years later, that number had risen to 8.8 per cent. In February, the gentle warming-up period of the election before everyone got stroppy and out of control, Labor pledged $8.5 billion for Medicare, so all of us would have access to bulk billing by 2030. The plan, according to Labor, would produce patient savings of up to $859 million a year by 2030. It's Medicare's 41st birthday and this investment, if the bulk billing strategy works, is a huge birthday gift to those of us who benefit from universal health care. That is, all of us. In 1984, the annual GP bulk-billing rate was 51 per cent. It hit a 40-year high of 94 per cent in April 2020, under a Coalition government. Of course, some of that was due to special COVID items. Don't want to go back there if COVID is what it takes. But what can we do to make sure our GPs are protected too? They need to be properly remunerated for what is often grinding work with long hours. Good thing I never ended up as a GP. Imagine having to be patient with patients for hours at a time. Having to be kind to the miserable. Just doing that with your own kids is quite enough, let alone with anyone else's. Now we also have to get to work on specialist fees. I've written elsewhere about the insanity of those fees. This week, the Grattan Institute revealed more than one in five Australians who saw a specialist in 2023 was charged an extreme fee at least once. It also said one in 10 Australians who saw a psychiatrist ended up paying $400 in out-of-pocket costs for their initial consultation alone. It also had a list of recommendations. My vengeful self enjoyed some of those, such as stripping Medicare rebates from specialists charging excessive fees, more than others. And I love the idea of the Medical Cost Finder website, designed so people can compare out-of-pocket fees doctors charge for specialist procedures. But last year it was revealed that five years after the site launched, just 20 doctors out of the 36,000 specialists nationwide provided their fees for listing. MORE JENNA PRICE: There are some useful bits, though. For example, your first specialist appointment will see you pay just under $200, and on average, $117 out of pocket. The rest is paid by Medicare. That's across the country. The most expensive is the ACT where the typical specialist fee is $285. Patients will find themselves two hundred bucks out of pocket. I am not entirely sure how the government will sort this out but we urgently need an overhaul of what we pay for our health. Jim Chalmers is talking tax reform and maybe we need some kind of a sliding scale for people whose super balances are above $3 million, more than he's proposing right now. Universities have a part to play too. Maybe they should let more students into medical schools. Maybe free tuition but then bond students to rural and regional areas for 10 years? Are specialist colleges acting in the best interests of Australians? Or in their own financial best interest? I dunno. But whatever we are doing isn't working. May the government's plans work - and once GPs are sorted, let's start working on the rest of the health industry. My GP bulk bills me. My status has been grandmothered. It's a bloody miracle and I'm grateful. I'd personally like to thank former prime minister Gough Whitlam. Medibank, the forerunner to Medicare, was his brainchild. It began in July 1975. But after the Whitlam government was dismissed, the Fraser government buggered it up. Levies on incomes unless you were privately insured. Nine years later, former prime minister Bob Hawke (the National Museum of Australia calls him Robert. Way too formal) established Medicare. He said: "With this historic initiative, all Australians now have a new, simpler and fairer health insurance system." Well, kind of. Stephen Duckett, the absolute full-bottle on Medicare over decades, tells me that bulk-billing is crucial. We had a peak five years ago and it's been downhill from there. "There are good grounds not to have out-of-pocket payments for GPs. And right now, it's a lottery," he says. Duckett's right. When you front up at your GP, you don't automatically know whether you will be in the lucky group to be bulk billed. "You might be asking when you front up," he says. But it's the uncertainty, the possible embarrassment of signing up to pay money you don't have. He commends any government's attempt to get practices to be 100 per cent bulk-billing because then patients get 100 per cent certainty. And getting that 100 per cent certainty about your healthcare matters. Too many of us are not that lucky. News this week that Canberrans are now paying out an average of just over $62 in out-of-pocket fees to see their GPs is unnerving. If you don't have the sixty-odd bucks, you don't go. And that's extremely risky. British research shows us (and Australian research backs it up) that continuity of care is associated with higher life expectancy. If you don't get that care, you die. Well, we all die - but without regular contact with a regular GP, you have a shorter life expectancy. Good access, lower cost, the necessary number of GPs per head of population - these are all associated with longer lives. The cost of visiting the GP is putting many of us off from getting essential health care. Late last year, the ABS reported a rise in the number of people who reported not visiting the GP because of cost-of-living pressures. In the financial year ending June 22, 3.5 per cent of people either put off or didn't see a GP when they needed to because of the cost. Three years later, that number had risen to 8.8 per cent. In February, the gentle warming-up period of the election before everyone got stroppy and out of control, Labor pledged $8.5 billion for Medicare, so all of us would have access to bulk billing by 2030. The plan, according to Labor, would produce patient savings of up to $859 million a year by 2030. It's Medicare's 41st birthday and this investment, if the bulk billing strategy works, is a huge birthday gift to those of us who benefit from universal health care. That is, all of us. In 1984, the annual GP bulk-billing rate was 51 per cent. It hit a 40-year high of 94 per cent in April 2020, under a Coalition government. Of course, some of that was due to special COVID items. Don't want to go back there if COVID is what it takes. But what can we do to make sure our GPs are protected too? They need to be properly remunerated for what is often grinding work with long hours. Good thing I never ended up as a GP. Imagine having to be patient with patients for hours at a time. Having to be kind to the miserable. Just doing that with your own kids is quite enough, let alone with anyone else's. Now we also have to get to work on specialist fees. I've written elsewhere about the insanity of those fees. This week, the Grattan Institute revealed more than one in five Australians who saw a specialist in 2023 was charged an extreme fee at least once. It also said one in 10 Australians who saw a psychiatrist ended up paying $400 in out-of-pocket costs for their initial consultation alone. It also had a list of recommendations. My vengeful self enjoyed some of those, such as stripping Medicare rebates from specialists charging excessive fees, more than others. And I love the idea of the Medical Cost Finder website, designed so people can compare out-of-pocket fees doctors charge for specialist procedures. But last year it was revealed that five years after the site launched, just 20 doctors out of the 36,000 specialists nationwide provided their fees for listing. MORE JENNA PRICE: There are some useful bits, though. For example, your first specialist appointment will see you pay just under $200, and on average, $117 out of pocket. The rest is paid by Medicare. That's across the country. The most expensive is the ACT where the typical specialist fee is $285. Patients will find themselves two hundred bucks out of pocket. I am not entirely sure how the government will sort this out but we urgently need an overhaul of what we pay for our health. Jim Chalmers is talking tax reform and maybe we need some kind of a sliding scale for people whose super balances are above $3 million, more than he's proposing right now. Universities have a part to play too. Maybe they should let more students into medical schools. Maybe free tuition but then bond students to rural and regional areas for 10 years? Are specialist colleges acting in the best interests of Australians? Or in their own financial best interest? I dunno. But whatever we are doing isn't working. May the government's plans work - and once GPs are sorted, let's start working on the rest of the health industry.
