In 2008, the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) signed up to a National Healthcare Agreement to improve not only health outcomes for all Australians but also health system sustainability. How are they doing? The latest report by the COAG Reform Council—Healthcare in Australia 2012—13: Five years of performance—has good and bad news. It shows that life expectancy has increased for men (79·0 years to 79·9 years) and women (83·7 years to 84·3 years), deaths from circulatory disease have fallen (from 202·0 to 159·6 deaths per 100 000 people), as have deaths in children younger than 5 years (106·9 to 82·9 per 100 000 children) and the national smoking rate (from 19·1% to 16·3%). However, potentially preventable hospital admissions for acute conditions (1079·6 to 1198·2 per 100 000 people) and vaccine-preventable conditions (70·8 to 82·2 per 100 000 people) have increased.
The report also shows worrying increases in the overweight and obesity rate (61·1% to 62·7%), which could lead to peaks in type 2 diabetes and other chronic diseases in the future. Monitoring is crucial to track health reforms and policies, and to identify health and health-care problems. However, this is not only the COAG Reform Council’s latest report but also its last. The Council will cease to exist on June 30, after being axed in the hugely unpopular 2014 budget delivered by Prime Minister Tony Abbott last month. One benefit of an accountability body such as the COAG Reform Council is its independence from federal, state, and territory governments. Concerns have also been expressed over who will now report on the Closing the Gap initiative of Australia’s governments to reduce disparities between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.
Health agencies have also fallen foul of the new budget. Several, including the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare and the National Health Performance Authority, will be merged into a new super agency—the Health Performance and Productivity Commission. However, details are scarce on how this will happen. The future of health and health care in Australia has entered uncertain times indeed.
For the COAG Reform Council report see https://www.coagreformcouncil.gov.au/sites/default/files/files/Healthcare%20in%20Australia%202012-13%20Five%20years%20of%20performance%20REVISED%20WA%20SNAPSHOT.pdf
Source: The Lancet