A Future for Private Health? - ONLINE ONLY

About this Session

Australia’s private health sector is confronting a period of significant challenge, marked by rising operational costs, persistent workforce shortages, stagnant demand, and increasing out-of-pocket expenses for consumers. These pressures have resulted in declining profitability, hospital closures, adversarial insurer-provider relationships, and a lack of transparency, with confidence further undermined by the collapse of Healthscope. There are growing concerns that instability in the private sector will increase pressure on Australia’s already overburdened public system.

This webinar brings together leading experts to assess the current state of private and public health care in Australia and to explore practical solutions that would ensure a viable and sustainable health system. Speakers will address themes including pricing, consumer demand, sustainable and ethical business models, innovative care delivery, and regulatory reform.

The session participants (in alphabetical order of last names) and affiliations are as follows:

Terence C. Cheng, Monash University (Moderator)

Terence is an Associate Professor at the Centre for Health Economics, Monash University. His research broadly focuses on health care financing and organisation, the medical labour market, and the factors that shape health and well-being. Currently, his work centers on two main areas: (1) innovative financing and delivery models for health and long-term care, and (2) the roles of the public and private sectors in health care and their impact on health system performance. His research has been published in leading journals in economics, health economics, and health policy, covering topics such as public & private healthcare and insurance, medical labor markets, internet health markets, and health & well-being. His work spans Australia and the broader Asia region, including China, India and Singapore.

Henry Cutler, Macquarie University

Professor Henry Cutler is the inaugural director of the Macquarie University Centre for the Health Economy within the Australian Institute of Health Innovation, Australia’s largest health services research group. He is also a research associate of the Health Economics Research Centre, University of Oxford. Prof Cutler has published in world-leading journals, conducted over 200 health economics research projects for government and non-government organizations, and attracted over $40 million in grant funding as a chief investigator. Prof Cutler has guest lectured at Harvard University and the University of Oxford, and served on nationally important expert advisory panels and working groups, including for the National Suicide Prevention Office, National Mental Health Commission, and the Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System. Prof Cutler was an expert witness twice for the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety. He has received numerous awards, including the inaugural Deeble Institute Fellowship. 

Catherine de Fontenay, Productivity Commission

Catherine de Fontenay is a Commissioner with the Productivity Commission (PC) since 2019. Prior to joining the PC, she was an Associate Professor of Economics at the Melbourne Business School, University of Melbourne. She leads the PC’s health research stream, including research on Measuring Healthcare Productivity, Leveraging Digital Technologies in Health and a current research project on Young People and their use of Private Health Insurance.

Nathan Kettlewell, University of Technology Sydney

Dr Nathan Kettlewell is a Associate Professor in the Economics Department at UTS. His research aims to improve people’s economic and social welfare, either by informing better policy decisions, or helping people to make better informed choices. He is an applied microeconomist who has written many papers in the areas of private health insurance, economic preferences, and mental wellbeing. His research on private health insurance explores topics related to consumer wellbeing and public finance, such as the role of government incentives on demand for private insurance, how insurance affects demand for healthcare, and the rationality of consumer behaviour. His research on economic preferences aims to understand why we make the decisions we do by uncovering the causes of individual variation in decision making traits, like risk aversion and trust. 

Francesco Paolucci, University of Newcastle

Dr Francesco Paolucci is Professor of Health Economics & Policy at the University of Newcastle, Australia, and at the University of Bologna, Italy. He is also the Associate Dean International of the College of Human and Social Futures and the Coordinator of the Value in Health Economics Policy group. Before joining the University of Newcastle, he was Head of Health Policy at the Sir Walter Murdoch School of Public Policy and International Affairs, Murdoch University, Perth, Australia. Prof. Paolucci was formerly the Chief Advisor on Health Reforms to the Minister of Health in Chile and a member of the Italian Technical Committee for the Allocation of the National Health Budget (~€200 billion budget pa). A scholar and advisor, he has published extensively over the last decades in the areas of public policy, economics and management, with a strong focus on healthcare systems at state, national and international levels. His work includes five edited special issues in leading international journals with contributions from over 25 countries. He has authored more than 110 peer-reviewed publications, book chapters, and reviews across multiple languages, and published a single-authored book (Health Care Financing and Insurance: Options for Design, Springer). He has also contributed chapters to a volume on sustainability challenges in health systems edited by Thomas McGuire (Harvard) and Richard van Kleef (Erasmus, Elsevier). Prof Paolucci received the 40 Under 40 Award from Business News for his leadership in internationalising and tailoring education to the needs of public and private sectors. He has over 20 years of experience in health economics and policy across more than 15 countries, including Australia, Chile, Italy, the Netherlands, Qatar, Spain, the UK, USA, among others. Prof. Paolucci has extensive international experience working with think tanks, governments, and industry. He has been Chief Investigator on grants funded by the Australian Research Council, the National Health and Medical Research Council, and the European Commission (eg. Horizon 2020), as well as numerous industry partners.  

Yuting Zhang, University of Melbourne

Professor Yuting Zhang leads the health team at the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research within the Faculty of Business and Economics, and is the founding director of the Health Analytics, Leadership, and Economics (HALE) Hub at the University of Melbourne. She is a globally recognized expert in health economics, focused on designing and evaluating policies that enhance health insurance, improve healthcare system efficiency, and boost population health. Her research employs advanced economic modelling and big data to rigorously analyze health policy impacts and individual choices. Professor Zhang's influential work, published in top journals like The New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA and Lancet series, and the Journal of Health Economics, has directly shaped policy-making in Australia, the US, and internationally.  She is an ARC Future Fellow and Co-Chair of the prestigious Arrow Award Committee (the highest international award in health economics). She is a sought-after advisor and serves on the editorial boards of prestigious health journals. She earned her PhD in Health Policy (economics concentration) and MS in Health Policy and Management from Harvard University.

Information

When: Wednesday 1st October 2025
Time: From 12.00pm until 1.10pm (approx end)
Where: Online via Zoom
Cost: Free of Charge - register below

Registration and Joining this Webinar

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The timing of this event is AEST (SYD/CBR/MEL).