19 September 2016 - A large group of powerful health care industry players met at the Hel­lenic Club in the Canberra suburb of Woden on March 29 this year.

According to The Australian, it was their fourth meeting for the year, In attendance were medical experts, lobby groups, health fund executives, consultants and numerous federal health bureaucrats arguing over an estimated $800 million in savings for consumers.

On one side was the lobby group for manufacturers of dev­ices such as artificial knees and hips and pacemakers — including the giant US corporation Johnson & Johnson — that cost privately ­insured Australians up to five times more than those in public hospitals and overseas.

In addition, private hospital chains such as Ramsay Health Care were fighting to protect the prices they can charge private ­patients for these devices.

Read The Australian article