Integral to this vision is a healthy population and a world-class health system.

The BCA Healthy Australia Task Force embraces the concept that health is everybody’s business.

The task force is examining the contribution that business can make to the health debate and to policies determining the focus, funding, delivery and measurement of improved health outcomes.

While it has functioned successfully to date, Australia’s health system must now be adapted to new and emerging needs. Healthcare reform should aim to:

• Improve the health of all Australians to underpin future social and economic prosperity.
  
• Improve the effectiveness and efficiency with which the healthcare system operates.

In March 2009 the BCA released a blueprint for healthcare service reform titled Fit for the Job: Adapting to Australia’s New Healthcare Challenges.

Its diagnosis is that while our health services have many parts, they do not function effectively as one system.

We must reorganise the system around patients’ needs and around the new patterns of disease.

Among other reforms, Fit for the Job advocates a new comprehensive health strategy, and an independent health commission to carry out that strategy, integrate Australia’s fragmented national health services, boost efficiency and drive the reforms required to meet the needs of the future. It also promotes the establishment of national, patient-based information systems.

The BCA will continue to highlight the importance of high-quality health care to a productive workforce.

BCA Secretariat contact: Ruth Dunkin, Director Policy