In this paper, we examine trends in provider fees charged, government expenditure on private out-of-hospital medical services, and out of pocket costs following policy changes intended to reduce government expenditure. We examine the experience of a high-need patient group: people diagnosed with...

The Extended Medicare Safety Net (EMSN) in Australia was designed to provide financial assistance to patients with high out-of-pocket (OOP) costs for medical treatment. The EMSN works on a calendar year basis. Once a patient incurs a specified amount of OOP costs, the EMSN provides additional...

Cystic fibrosis (CF) is the most common life-shortening genetic disease, with an incidence of 1 in 2500 and carrier frequency of 1 in 25, amongst Caucasians (Welsh, Ramsey et al. 2001). With recent advances in treatment, most children with CF now can expect to survive into adulthood and life...