Much attention has been paid to patient access to emergency services, focusing on hospital reforms, yet very little is known about the characteristics of those presenting to emergency departments.

The nature of the private–public mix in health insurance and in health care is a major issue in most health systems.

Recent comparative evidence from OECD countries suggests that Australia's mixed public-private health system does a good job in ensuring high and fairly equal access to doctor, hospital and dental care services. This paper provides some further analysis of the same data from the Australian...