Economics and health — how does 2015 look?

doi: 10.5694/mja15.c0202 Economics and health — how does 2015 look? The current discussion about copayments illustrates how hard it is to make sense of the interplay of the health and economic systems, especially when political wheels are engaged. When the copayment was proposed it was said to be necessary because the health service was unsustainable. Its purpose changed on the night of the presentation of the 2014 federal Budget, to funding medical research. Later it became a price signal, despite already obvious price signals in the form of private health insurance premiums and the Medicare levy.