Sharing the Burden: Understanding the Roles of Public and Private Insurance in Financing Aged Care

Abstract

Reform of the aged-care financing system should be informed by objective, quantifiable evidence about how various strategies perform in achieving public policy goals such as target efficiency, prevention of catastrophic out-of-pocket expenditures, and system balance. In this context, I will discuss the relative merits of public and private insurance and what is needed to move the discussion of financing reform ahead in an objective quantifiable way.