Australian health services run down
More than half the Federal health budget is remedial spending to fix up services that have been allowed to run down, an Access Economics analysis prepared for the Australian Medical Association has found.
About $2.7 billion of the $4.6 billion allocated over five years as new health spending was remedial, the economics consulting firm said. That included spending on dental services, aged care and GP’s after-hours and nursing home visits.
The spending was necessary because programs that had been allowed to decay had to be reassessed and improved, but “it just cannot be sold as new money”, the report said.
Access Economics said the spending was well targeted at health system weaknesses, such as helping patients with chronic diseases. But not enough was being done to tackle the “alarming growth in the rate of obesity” and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health was still being overlooked, the report said.
