Health 2040 Taskforce Report
It is a great pleasure to facilitate the Health 2040 Taskforce Report released today.
The report is the result of a consultation process that took more than a year and involved around 40 health professionals and consumers, to identify near-term reforms that would underpin the sustainable future of our healthcare system. It outlines steps to improve health outcomes and the ways in which professional self-interest and political inertia may create barriers to reform, and offers a range of ‘quick wins’ and 10-year timeframe recommendations.
We have taken a pragmatic approach to this task, as we recognised there are some fundamentals in the Australian healthcare system that make it one of the best health systems in the world. These fundamentals are Medicare and the mix of public and private sectors delivered across Commonwealth, State and Territory Governments and private sector providers.
I would like to thank members and funding partners of the Taskforce for their commitment to the process and their willingness to work together on complex issues of healthcare reform. The ‘Second Track’ process, promoted by GAP in public policy consultations, enables strategic, rational conversations in contested policy spaces, in an environment conducive to independent thinking and development of fresh ideas and solutions.
Health reform is hard and will take time. If you look across the world, any significant reform takes a minimum of 10 years. We need all parts of the sector and parliamentarians to leave self-interest at the door and sit down and work on ensuring our health care system remains one of the best in the world.
For more details:
Participate in my blog ‘Health is not a short term issue‘
Martin Bowles AO PSM is the Chair of Australia’s Health 2040 Taskforce and the National Chief Executive Officer of Calvary Health. He joined Calvary in November 2017 following a distinguished 40-year public service career in the Commonwealth, Queensland and NSW Governments. Martin has played an integral role in changes across the Australian health sector, including the significant recent reforms to government funding for public hospitals to generate greater efficiency, safety and quality of care.
Australia’s Health 2040 is a strategic policy group of Global Access Partners (GAP). The report is co-funded by GAP, EY, Bupa Health Foundation, Johnson & Johnson Australia and Westpac.
