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Mark Butler

This Month

The private hospital “health check” is due to be completed next month.

Private hospital operators to hand over profitability data

Data about break-even points and investability will be handed to the Health Department by next week, The Australian Financial Review has learnt.

  • Tom McIlroy

June

Vapes would be sold in a similar manner to cigarettes under a Coalition policy unveiled on Tuesday.

Vapes would be sold like cigarettes under Coalition policy

Vapes would be subject to an excise tax that could raise billions of dollars annually, under a proposal unveiled by shadow health spokeswoman Anne Ruston.

  • Ronald Mizen
Singapore has not had a lot of luck weeding out vapes.

‘Not tobacconists’: Pharmacists reject Labor-Greens deal on vapes

Health Minister Mark Butler on Monday backflipped on plans to mandate doctors’ prescriptions for all vape sales but said the government would still limit their sale to pharmacies. 

  • Updated
  • Ronald Mizen
Royal Prince Alfred hospital provides healthcare to those in quarantine, via virtual health.

Help us or hospital system could fail: private operator

One of Australia’s largest Catholic hospital operators says a review of the viability of the private sector must secure a viable business model.

  • Tom McIlroy
Aged Care Minister Anika Wells

Labor, Coalition making progress towards higher aged care fees

The Albanese government hopes for a deal as early as next week on higher aged care fees for those who can pay.

  • Phillip Coorey
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Health Minister Mark Butler’s department will finish its “health check” on private hospitals in August.

Private hospitals open books for urgent ‘health check’

Health Minister Mark Butler has launched an urgent review into the $22 billion private hospital system.

  • Tom McIlroy

May

NIB chief executive Mark Fitzgibbon said tighter regulation was a better approach than an outright ban.

Replica Ozempic ban could deny thousands ‘life-changing medication’

Healthcare start-ups say the ban is a step too far and risks leaving tens of thousands of Australians without the medications they need.

  • Euan Black and Paul Smith
Deputy Opposition Leader Sussan Ley introduced the $1 discount, but isn’t defending it now.

Pharmacy Guild still the natural enemy of competition

The guild’s preferred business model is for its members to be on high margins and their customers paying little, with the taxpayer eternally bridging the difference.

  • Myriam Robin
Only legitimate Ozempic will be allowed in Australia, which will reduce supply.

Replica Ozempic and Mounjaro will be banned by October

The ruling preserves the status quo of the drug market in a boon to big pharmaceutical firms and a blow to start-ups that are trying to disrupt the sector.

  • Nick Bonyhady
The budget includes a one-year freeze on the maximum co-payment for a PBS prescription.

Prescription drug price freeze until 2026

Moves to limit price increases for prescription holders will come into force from January 1 next year.

  • Tom McIlroy
Treasurer Jim Chalmers.

Budget surplus of $9.3b and then a sea of red ink

Tuesday’s federal budget will forecast a surplus of $9.3 billion for this financial year, after which the bottom line will plunge into successive deficits.

  • Phillip Coorey

March

Health Department secretary Blair Comley.

Health chief invokes ‘AFR test’ in proposal writing overhaul

Blair Comley has applied what he calls “the AFR test” as he pushes executives in his federal health department to write and think more clearly.

  • Tom Burton

Private hospitals sound alarm as premiums rise

More than a dozen private hospitals have closed since last year, with NIB boss Mark Fitzgibbon warning of a structural change in the provision of medical care.

  • Michael Read and James Thomson

January

Authorities have seized more than $4.5 million worth of disposable vapes after the government banned the importation of the products from the new year.

Crackdown seizes $4.5m of disposable vapes

Border Force authorities seized 150,000 disposable vapes worth about $4.5 million after the federal government cracked down on the ‘public health menace’.

  • Gus McCubbing
the Coalition is preparing to weaponise the surge in arrivals into Australia.

Mental health decline among young reaches crisis point

Leading mental health advocate Patrick McGorry has told the Albanese government a rise in diagnoses represents a public health crisis in Australia.

  • Tom McIlroy
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Former deputy chief medical officer Nick Coatsworth has spoken about the inquiry into the pandemic response.

Controlling COVID ‘at all costs’ went too far: ex-deputy health chief

Officials persisted with policies despite the changing nature of the pandemic, while state powers on lockdowns need to be reined in, Dr Nick Coatsworth said.

  • John Kehoe
Taiwan’s new president, William Lai Ching-te.

Tense Taiwan status quo as voters defy China

Taiwan’s voters have elected the presidential candidate most despised by Beijing, but he will govern with a minority, which means China will ramp up efforts to influence local affairs.

  • Michael Smith
Australia has banned the importation of disposable single use vapes.

Fears of black market after vape imports banned

The federal government has banned the importation of single-use disposable vapes amid warnings of youth addiction.

  • Gus McCubbing

December 2023

Hospitals are struggling with the rising costs of recruitment, power and food,

Keeping premiums affordable requires modern healthcare

If Labor wants to keep health insurance affordable to take pressure off the public system, tougher reforms are needed to make our health system more efficient and sustainable.

  • Rachel David

November 2023

Health Minister Mark Butler.

Healius slammed over withheld patient data

Health Minister Mark Butler says test results have been withheld from the My Health Record digital platform since mid-September.

  • Tom McIlroy

Original URL: https://www.afr.com/person/mark-butler-47a