Health and wellbeing statistics in Australia have become a passion of mine, especially because recently; through the launch of a customer health initiative; I've become better informed about the huge economic and social costs associated with the treatment of chronic disease.

Health and wellbeing statistics in Australia have become a passion of mine, especially because recently; through the launch of a customer health initiative; I've become better informed about the huge economic and social costs associated with the treatment of chronic disease.

My big takeout is that Australians' health and wellbeing is increasingly at risk. Far too many of us - around 77 per cent - have at least one chronic condition that's caused by lifestyle-related behaviours; type two diabetes, heart disease and stroke. The increase in chronic; and preventable; disease is one contributing factor to the rise in the demands on the Australian health care system. And while we certainly need to be addressing the issue as a matter of urgency, the statistics being debated: ‘how many on waiting lists' and ‘how many beds'; show we're more focused on addressing the effect rather than the cause. For a shot at real health reform, and a meaningful improvement in the health of Australians, we need to move the health care ‘goal posts' and focus on a different set of numbers.

Goal post shift - Let's help people avoid hospital, rather than get the bed ready for them: At last count, 2% of national health spend is allocated to preventative health measures, yet approximately 77% of Australians have at least one chronic condition that could be prevented or controlled with a change in lifestyle and behaviours. These conditions not only put life and lifestyle at risk, they come at a cost to society - treating chronic conditions consumes about 70% of the annual health sector spend; treatment of these illnesses is a contributing factor to the approximately 9% of GDP spent each year in Australia on health.

The Government has taken a significant step in setting up the Preventative Health Taskforce, which has focused on tobacco, alcohol and obesity. However, in an election year it's a worrying sign that preventative health wasn't talked about in any significant way in the Rudd-Abbott debate. In the days after the debate Alan Jones speculated, that the focus of health reform should be keeping people out of hospital in the first place. Beds and waiting lists have become political footballs, the set of numbers with which politicians try to out-do each other; but the reality is that a system that educates and works to prevent chronic diseases; is the only way to direct focus and resources to addressing rising health care costs at the source.

The benefits of such significant reform cannot be understated; every person kept out of a hospital bed it means a better quality of life for them. It would also greatly reduce the cost to the Government and taxpayers: if Australia can reduce hospital demand by 5%, it will free up $1.6 billion annually to be spent on other areas in our health system.
A health system that's about much more than just hospitals:

The necessary reform would create a system of interlinking elements rather than treating preventative health, primary care and prevention as separate functions. This is something in which the insurance, medical and advice industries will all need to play a role. Life insurers and medical practitioners collect personal information about social habits and health from their customers; the information we hold can provide a snapshot of Australia's collective health, including the likelihood of chronic and often preventable diseases. We have an obligation to help where we can to better the health and wellbeing of our customers; through the provision of education and incentives to improve their health indicators, or through using our collective voice to ensure that the ‘snapshot' of Australia's future health we can provide, makes preventative healthcare measures a national priority. Advisers can play a key role in raising awareness of preventative health; clients look to you for assurance that the information they provide is used to assure their lifestyle to the greatest extent possible. Statistics demonstrate, a number of your clients have elevated health indicators, indicators of future preventable health problems. Preventative health isn't a sexy topic, and the time-lag in results means it's difficult to measure the benefits of increased spending on preventative health today for maybe 10 years.

It's important that we get a firm plan of action for preventative healthcare now, so that we can avoid the hundreds of thousands of preventable deaths that would result from inaction.