Australia’s health and care system must be renewed to be sustainable and to meet our future needs. Our new health and care blueprint outlines the essential steps we must take now to ensure a healthier, more productive nation.
Australia stands at a critical juncture in its health and care journey. With an ageing population, rising chronic disease, and increasing fiscal pressures, the sustainability of our health and care economy is under threat.
The Business Council of Australia (BCA) represents over 130 major employers, including ones in the health, aged care, insurance, research, and education sectors. Together, the BCA presents this blueprint as a comprehensive strategy to ensure a healthier, more productive nation.
This blueprint outlines a bold vision for a federated bipartisan approach to delivering a consumer‑centred, outcomes-driven, and financially sustainable health and care economy. It focuses on two key pillars—health and aged care—while recognising the interconnectedness of disability, mental health, and veterans’ services.
We call for a whole-of-system reform that leverages the strengths of both public and private sectors, embraces innovation, and empowers individuals to take charge of their health.
The blueprint’s recommendations are founded on six key principles with overarching recommendations that are supported by specific actions.
| 1. Empower consumers to manage their health and wellbeing by supporting consumer-centred care. Empowering consumers to proactively manage their health and wellbeing, by responsibly addressing their needs and preferences, increasing transparency in services and utilising new technologies, will improve health literacy and outcomes. |
| 2. Build a future health and care system to enable equitable access to services for all Australians. Building a holistic approach to Australia’s health and care economy will establish an adaptable, equitable, and sustainable system. This vision recognises new models of funding and service delivery, ensuring all Australians can access the essential services they need. |
| 3. Invest in early intervention, research, innovation, and prevention to cultivate a healthy and more productive nation. This focus will enable people to live healthy lives while reducing the financial burden on the health and care economy. |
| 4. Strengthen the health and care workforce through adequate workforce planning and training to ensure it is productive and skilled. Expanding our workforce by using new models of care and flexibility to adopt new innovations will be critical to meeting the demands of an ageing population and the increasing burden of disease. |
| 5. Enable greater access to services by supporting a complementary and dynamic public and private health and care system. Building an evolving and sustainable health and care market that fosters collaboration and dynamism between our complementary public and private systems will allow Australians to access quality and safe care. |
| 6. Create a health and care system supported by a coordinated national approach, with improved accountability and coordination. This strong coordinated approach will enhance governance, drive exceptional consumer outcomes and ensure the long-term sustainability of the system. |
Scale of our challenge
Other common global and domestic challenges include:
- Ageing population
- Workforce
- Technological innovation
- Access to care and inequities
- Genomics
- Noncommunicable diseases (chronic conditions)
- Mental health
- Infectious disease
- Antimicrobial resistance
Case for acting now
Without decisive action, Australia risks:
- Jeopardising future prosperity by having a less healthy and productive nation.
- Failing to lift productivity, which will compound the national challenge to raise living standards.
- Missing major technological and business advancements that can improve and save lives.
- Worsening the intergenerational equity divide – the financial burden on younger Australians will increase without reform.
- Having a financially unsustainable system – the current trajectory of spending is not viable for the long term which could leave people without care.
The path forward
By creating a health and care economy that reflects our modern world and innovations, Australians will have access to the latest developments in care and medicines, becoming a healthier
and more productive nation.
Australia can secure better health outcomes, greater economic participation, and a sustainable system for future generations by embracing reform now.