Moving to a Smart Health System

In today's Age, Rob Moodie writes about the move towards a smart health system...

A good starting point would be to ensure we have a health system — one that actively creates good health from birth and maximises our health to the grave — not simply an illness system. Such a system needs to be smart, balanced, fair and simple.

Federal Labor's new health policy moves in this direction. In Fresh Ideas, Future Economy Labor notes that...

The current health system is very good at providing acute and episodic care when people are sick, but it is not well equipped to meet the future challenge of the growing chronic disease burden.

Labor proposes to initiate major health care reform by shifting the focus to preventative healthcare. Only by making this shift can we treat people fairly and manage the chronic disease burden