COAG report into Healthcare in Australia Delivers Positive and Negative News

The COAG Reform Council’s final report on healthcare reform, Healthcare in Australia 2012—13: Five years of performance, shows that over five years governments have delivered positive results for Australians, but a number of areas of concern are clearly emerging.
Launching the report in Canberra, Chairman of the COAG Reform Council, the Hon John Brumby said COAG has made significant improvements to healthcare over five years.
“Life expectancy has increased, emergency department waiting times are improving and smoking rates are falling,” Mr Brumby said. “Australians have among the longest life expectancies in the world and our two biggest killers—circulatory disease and cancer—have fallen significantly.
“Our national smoking rate has dropped to around 16% but must continue to fall to meet COAG’s target of 10% by 2018.
“A huge achievement is the fall in child and infant death rates, which have dropped by 20% from 2007 to 2012.”
The report also outlines six emerging areas of concern that will require further attention from COAG.
Chief among these is obesity and type 2 diabetes, which will pose major challenges for our healthcare system if not addressed urgently.
“We found almost 63% of Australian adults are overweight or obese and 1 in 25 Australians are suffering from type 2 diabetes—a condition associated with obesity.
“What is particularly worrying is that a quarter of people with type 2 diabetes do not know they have it, and half of people who know they have type 2 diabetes are not managing their condition properly.”
Another factor adding pressure to our healthcare system is our ageing population. In five years, the percentage of elderly Australians waiting more than nine months for high residential care rose from just over 3% to more than 14%.
We’re also waiting longer for elective surgery—wait times increased for 14 out of 15 selected surgical procedures. Access to affordable dental care is a growing issue. In 2012–13 nearly one in five Australians aged over 15 years delayed seeing a dentist because of cost and this figure rose to one in four in the most disadvantaged areas.
And, preventable hospitalisation rates for vaccine-preventable and acute conditions have jumped 16% and 11% respectively.
“While the report shows clear challenges ahead, the progress made in key areas like life expectancy, smoking and child deaths show what can be achieved by governments working together.”
Healthcare in Australia 2012—13: Five years of performance is available for download at www.coagreformcouncil.gov.au