Health Report - Full program podcast Folgen

As the voice ages, structural changes to the larynx occur which can change the way someone sounds. But new research has found something peculiar — among older people with this changing voice, termed presbyphonia, only some of them will actually notice it. Plus, breast cancer and chemotherapy, cytisine as a smoking cessation tool, and the changing drivers of death in Australia.

There are constant headlines about how people are losing confidence in private health insurance. One reason is rising premiums but another is the gaps between what doctors charge you and what you get back from Medicare and your health fund. We asked you to send in your medical bills if you were upset about your out of pocket expenses and hundreds of you did.  It was extraordinary and shocking. A urologist charging $27,000 for a prostatectomy. A potentially illegal under the counter fee of $6000. So it went on. Professor Stephen Duckett says the private system is under strain, and there's no easy fix on the horizon. Plus, men with slow-growing prostate cancers aren't being properly monitored and the evidence for a link between schizophrenia and urbanicity on shaky ground.