The study found that the poor used public hospitals more than the rich, however for private hospitals this pattern was reversed - with patients in the poorest socioeconomic group having a 19 per cent lower hospitalisation rate than patients in the richest such group. Other findings were that, despite little change in the utilisation of...

Finding ways of curbing government expenditure on the PBS while maintaining social equity and access to 'essential' medicines is at the centre of ongoing public debate. This paper outlines future developments that will extend the current model to include health outcomes. Adding health outcomes represents a path-breaking advancement in modelling the PBS and will advance...

In recent years outlays on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme have increased rapidly, prompting both attempts by government to reduce growth in outlays and renewed interest in the characteristics of the beneficiaries of the Scheme. This paper, using a microsimulation model of the PBS, analyses the distributional impact of Commonwealth Government outlays on the PBS, by...

This study examines the socioeconomic status of NSW hospital patients in 1999-2000 and projects likely hospital costs to 2009-10. It draws upon unique patient based datasets from NSW public and private hospitals that include hospital admissions, as well as the associated treatment costs in each of the four years to 1999-2000.

Late in 2000 NATSEM was awarded a three-year Australian Research Council Strategic Partnership with Industry Research and Training (SPIRT) grant. Among other things, the grant involves adding an indicator of socioeconomic status to patient-based hospitals administrative datasets for New South Wales over the period 1996-97 to 1999-00, in which expenditures have been allocated to each...