Investment Ideas: Disease
Could superannuation help solve our healthcare funding crisis?
In our latest instalment of Investment Ideas, hosts Douglas Isles and Jan Swinhoe speak with Dr Raymond Yeow, a unique voice in healthcare who combines perspectives as both a GP and an actuary.
Key areas discussed include:
- A proposal for Health Savings Accounts within superannuation, based on Singapore’s model
- The increasing trend of Australians withdrawing from their superannuation for medical treatments ($730 million in 2022-23)
- How introducing price signals through co-payments could create more discerning healthcare consumers
- The poor state of healthcare data systems and opportunities for actuaries to contribute solutions
About the guest speaker
Dr Raymond Yeow
Raymond is now a GP in private practice after several decades working in financial markets. Through his current GP and prior public hospital experience, Raymond has gained insights into the challenges experienced by patients and healthcare staff in creating optimal health outcomes at the individual patient and population health levels.
Raymond believes that combining a lived experience of front line medicine with prior actuarial, financial services and large corporate management experience equips him with wide holistic skills to (a) understand, treat & guide patients with chronic illnesses, (b) assist individuals with strategies to optimise health & performance and (c) contribute towards the re-calibration of a health system to acknowledge a longer living population, and a requirement to promote better health for each individual through policy initiatives for more appropriate delivery structures, payment models and behavioural incentives.
Prior to becoming a medical doctor, Raymond was a major participant at the advent of the financial derivatives in Australia and has established two derivatives departments in Sydney and overseas. He then changed career and follows a vocation that allows him to practice widely, be involved in teaching, and satisfies his intellectual curiosity on a daily basis.
Raymond holds a BA (Macquarie University), MBBS (University of Sydney), MBA (UNSW) and is a Fellow of both the Institute of Actuaries (Australia) & the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners.
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