Reducing “unwarranted variation”
Across the world, healthcare costs are rising at above GDP growth, meaning they take more and more of national incomes. Part of the solution lies in tackling 'unwarranted variation' in clinical practice.
Health inflation in every major economy has long exceeded the trend rate of GDP growth, making healthcare progressively less and less affordable.
For example, in Australia alone, healthcare costs
are expected to increase from the current level of 15% of all
Government spending to 26% by 2050, or 4.0% and 7.1% of GDP
respectively.* This pattern is repeated time and again
across the globe.
This financial pressure is driving considerable efforts to maintain and broaden access to healthcare while improving quality and cost effectiveness and to reform health systems.
As Bupa was founded to "prevent, relieve and cure sickness and ill health of every kind", our goal is to broaden access to quality healthcare. Making healthcare affordable is central to this, which is why we have been looking at a number of ways to decouple enhanced healthcare from higher costs.
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Bupa's collaborative care model for the UK’s NHS
Since 2007, Bupa has been working with the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) to assist commissioners to deliver better patient outcomes, alongside greater efficiency and better allocation of resources.
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Preserving access to fair, affordable life insurance and genetic test results
The question of whether data can and should be used by life insurers when determining the cost and cover they will provide has remained a point of debate.
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New low-cost intraocular lenses for cataract surgery trialled in Australia
Bupa Australia has conceived and funded a study to compare the clinical outcomes of a high-cost standard Alcon Intraocular Lens (IOL) with an equivalent low-cost Tecsoft Tilganga IOL.
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Bipolar explorers
Bipolar disorder and financial security don’t often occur together, so researchers at St Vincent’s Hospital in Melbourne are working to make life-changing therapy available and affordable.
