Does federal health care policy influence switching between the public and private sectors in individuals?
Our analysis suggests that the recent policies supporting PHI (30% rebate and Lifetime Health Cover) appear to have been effective at modifying individual behaviour to reduce the drift away from the private sector. However, the reported increases in utilisation of PHI were only partially explained by switching of existing demand in patients who had been previously hospitalised as public patients, suggesting that the policy reforms had generated, rather than merely shifted, demand for health care. This finding has significant policy implications for Australia.
The ICD-9 and -10 codes 428 and I50 were the most commonly used to define HF in hospital discharge data. Validity of administrative data in recording HF varied across the studies and data sources that were assessed.