Australian Prime Minister Sets Stage For Healthcare Reform; Coast Clear For PBS

PERTH, Australia - Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's announcement that Australia needs a major overhaul of its healthcare system in order to focus more on prevention is being supported by Medicines Australia, the association of multinational pharma companies operating in Australia.

"On a very broad level, any move to unify the health system and to integrate the health system is applauded by Medicines Australia because it goes to the root of the problem of cost shifting," Medicines Australia spokesman Jamie Nicholson told PharmAsia News.

Australia offers universal healthcare coverage to its citizens under the government-run Medicare system, which provides primary healthcare coverage, and a Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, which subsidizes 171 million prescriptions every year. Medicare does not offer dental healthcare or additional "extra" services, which has meant that those who can afford dental insurance and want other tertiary services purchase these services through private health insurance. This has resulted in a two-tier system, with those who can afford insurance going to private hospitals and getting better care than those who cannot afford private health insurance.

The prime minister's announcement followed the release of Australia's National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission report, "A Healthier Future For All Australians," which makes more than 100 recommendations aimed at transforming the Australian health system. One of those recommendations is to include dental coverage and other tertiary services in a Medicare-plus cover, which would be an add-on option provided by the government.

Rudd said that the Commonwealth would take responsibility for major reforms of Australia's health and hospitals system.

"If the States and Territories were not willing to implement cooperatively a comprehensive health and hospitals reform plan to end the blame game, the Commonwealth would take the matter to the Australian people for a mandate to take full funding responsibility for the system," Rudd said in a July 27 speech.

The commission estimated the reform plan would cost anywhere between AU $2.8 billion and AU $5.7 billion in recurrent annual costs, with AU $4.3 billion to AU $7.5 billion in one-off capital costs.

According to Rudd, reform of Australia's healthcare system will be guided by the following principles:

• Building a health system that is focused on people, not on systems - and that delivers genuinely 'joined-up' services that are easier for an individual patients to navigate;
• Maximizing the focus on prevention;
• Delivering comprehensive primary care or frontline care that properly connects GPs and community care on the one hand and acute and sub-acute care on the other;
• Minimizing waiting times for acute care - for both public hospital emergency departments and for planned elective surgery - and increasing the availability of hospital beds;
• Improving the care provided after a hospital stay, "by doing a better job in delivering sub-acute care and community based care;" and
• Providing better access to care, and improving the quality and safety of the healthcare system to achieve better healthcare outcomes for all Australians.

No Mention Of PBS

"The fact that there wasn't a specific recommendation around the way the PBS operates was comforting to us," Medicines Australia's Nicholson said, largely because it indicates the PBS is "not something that is likely to be reformed again to be of value to the health system."

Medicines Australia's CEO Ian Chalmers praised the commission for its report, and said that healthcare reform "stands as one of the great challenges of the 21st century."

The association also welcomed the recommendation to implement a national e-health system and the linkage of health data.

"If healthcare professionals understand what treatments a patient has received and what medications have been previously prescribed and dispensed, they will be much better placed to determine quickly the most appropriate treatment option," Chalmers said, and added, "This initiative goes to the core of quality use of medicines."

- Tamra Sami ([email protected])