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2015 was the year of the health review 鈥� on , the response to , Medicare, private health insurance, the pharmacy industry 鈥� and the list goes on.
But while little new policy was announced in 2015, debates continued about where the health system should be headed.

Keeping a lid on rising health costs

After 17 months on life support, the GP co-payment and was 鈥渂urned and cremated鈥� in March. Just as well; while the co-payment mark II was reduced to A$5, non-concession patients may have ended end up paying a A$30 more, according to .
We don鈥檛 have a co-payment but Australians are still likely to pay more for GP visits because of the rebate freeze.

The Coalition tried to justify its failed GP co-payment as an attempt to rein in consumers, who were driving the increase in Medicare costs. But it turns out was mostly to blame.
As Stephen Duckett wrote in November:

The co-payment proposal sank like a lead balloon partly because it was seen as inefficient and unfair, but also because the public didn鈥檛 have any ownership of the 鈥減roblem鈥� the changes sought to address.

However, the freeze on GP fees remains, some of which may be passed on to consumers.
An by the University of Sydney鈥檚 BEACH researchers shows that freezing GP earnings until 2017-18 equates to a 7.1% cut in real terms. Assuming this cut is passed on to non-concesssional patients, each visit would cost around A$8 more.
Most experts agree the key to a more sustainable health system is to better coordinate the care of the sick and elderly who use a disproportionate amount of health care. account for 41% of costs, and older people are using .
A small group of patients use almost half of the primary health resources.
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Paying doctors a fixed sum to care for a patient for the entire year, rather than a fee for each visit or service, is one solution, .
Another is to better target the tests and treatments that are given, and to tame the tsunami of too much medicine, . The current review of the Medicare schedule presents an opportunity to do just this.
Another key review currently underway is investigating the private health insurance industry. Premiums increased by an average of 6.2% in April, well above CPI and annual health inflation.
Private health insurance rebate increases vs CPI and health inflation.
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In response to this rise, we published a and investigating why half of Australians have private health insurance, how the carrot and stick have failed and the .
We鈥檒l bring you more next year when the private health insurance review is complete.

The thalidomide tragedy

This month we ran a , the drug that caused thousands of miscarriages in the late 1950s and early 鈥�60s and left more than 10,000 children severely disabled.
We explored the : how the drug was , how the it was causing harm, and whether something similar .
Our and at-a-glance provided a snapshot of how it unfolded.

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Then we heard from the victims who are still compensation and are a new range of ageing-related conditions, exacerbated by their disability.
Starting near the end of World War II and continuing until the 1970s, the US government sponsored radiation experiments on human subjects.
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Finally, we looked at the impact of the tragedy on , about taking medicines during pregnancy, and how thalidomide is to treat conditions such as leprosy and bone cancer.
This followed our broader historical series in June on , which explored the chequered history of wartime experiments and how these wrongs shaped medical ethics.

Other key series and packages

We as something that strikes certain parts of our body when something is damaged, but it鈥檚 much more complicated than that. Our ten-part series on pain examined the of pain, how we experience and pain, and the , cultural and differences at play.
Our weekly consumer series continued and generated popular discussion on food comas, whether your brain can be 鈥渇ull鈥�, and why some people feel the cold more than others.
Our in-depth packages examined how our mood, sleep and satiety; and the issues surrounding IVF and donor conception, including a reader-expert .
Our experts in law, embryology, sociology and psychology answered your questions on IVF and donor conception.
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We also canvassed some controversial but innovative options for tobacco control: of tobacco to people born after 2000, make cigarettes , target
and introduce a .
, Section Editor, Health and Medicine,
This article was originally published on . Read the .