The BCA welcomes the opportunity to respond to all five interim reports developed as part of the Productivity Commission’s Five Pillars of Productivity Inquiries. We are a member-led organisation, and our submissions reflect engagement with those members and the expertise and practical experience they bring.
On Tuesday 2 September 2025, the BCA released its health and care economy blueprint, Supporting a Healthy and Productive Nation which outlines the need for Australia to modernise its health and care system to ensure future generations have access to world leading services. Our blueprint focuses on health and aged care, while recognising the interconnectedness of disability, mental health, and veterans’ services. The blueprint is founded on six key principles and recommendations, and supported by a number of actions aimed at lifting productivity in the sector:
- Consumer empowerment: Empower consumers to choose how their care and support needs are met.
- Financial sustainability: Implement reforms to support the financial sustainability of the health and care system, and to address intergenerational fairness in the context of an ageing population.
- Innovation and technology: Capture the opportunities presented by evidence-based innovations and technologies, working with leading researchers to improve health and care outcomes and productivity.
- A skilled workforce: Expand and sustain a highly skilled and trained health and care workforce to meet the needs of our population.
- Complementary public and private systems: Build on the strengths of our complementary public and private systems to achieve the best outcomes.
This blueprint addresses many elements that respond to the Productivity Commission’s Delivering quality care more efficiently interim report which was released for comment on 13 August 2025. Our submission provides our detailed observations and recommendations in response to the draft recommendations and information requests. These are summarised below:
- We support and welcome efforts to ensure our health and care system is supported by a coordinated national approach, improved accountability, and coordination.
- We support the policy intent of collaborative commissioning. However, we have concerns about the model put forward by the Productivity Commission. This does not appear to address the underlying issue of fragmented services.
The Australian Government should establish a new entity, the Australian Health and Care Planning and Delivery Agency to provide independent advice on the planning and delivery of health and care services.
In time, the Australian Government should evaluate transitioning away from Primary Health Networks and provide the responsibility for commissioning services to the Australian Health and Care Planning and Delivery Agency.
We support the Productivity Commission’s proposal for more flexible funding models to enable the implementation of cost-effective community-led services and to work more closely with Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations. As such, the proposed agency could lead this work. - We strongly support an increased focus on preventative health.
We support the development of a National Prevention Investment Framework to guide government investment in prevention, improve outcomes, and reduce demand on services. This Framework should also include an evaluation
framework and support the implementation of the National Preventative Health Strategy 2021-2030.
We acknowledge the proposed establishment of an independent Prevention Framework Advisory Board. This is one option for putting discipline into funding processes. However, caution is needed to ensure it does not create a new
bureaucratic process and barrier to innovation and long-term investment.
We caution the creation of a new intergovernmental agreement on preventative health between governments. For simplification and alignment, this should form part of the National Health Reform Agreement as a dedicated schedule.
This initiative can and must be measured by setting it up to operate with appropriate financial and non-financial returns.