Preventative health campaign for Tasmanians
Tasmanian health and community organisations are campaigning for more money for preventative health, according to a report on the ABC online service.
The coalition includes the Heart Foundation, Cancer Council, TasCOSS, Colony 47 and the Health and Community Services Union.
They want the three political parties to make preventative health measures a key feature of their policies in the lead up to the March 2010 election.
The Heart Foundation’s Graeme Lynch says 1.5% of the state budget is currently spent on preventing death or serious illness, but the group says that should be increased to at least 5% over the next four years.
There is evidence overseas that a dollar spent on health prevention can lead to many many dollars, 10 or more dollars in a benefit to the community, both in the cost of acute and primary care but also in the quality of life, he said.
