December 2009

This letter, to Health Minister Nicola Roxon, outlines why health care needs to be treated as a system, and why taking a microeconomic lens to the challenges facing that system add new policy options to those traditionally available.

Healthcare services, currently oriented around providers and producers, need to be integrated and reoriented around the ‘consumers’ of healthcare services: patients.

Market supervision and professional governance are the keys to better health care services for patients and by providers.

A comprehensive national health strategy is an indispensible first step to identify future health needs and provide a powerful signal to providers about the range of services that will be purchased.

The market will then need to be reshaped to ensure that those services are provided and the current gaps in supply are met.

This transformation will be complex, but it is achievable – provided the right ‘market-based’ disciplines and arrangements are put in place.

Read the BCA’s letter to Health Minister Nicola Roxon, including its recommendation for a supervisory commission for health, using the link below.