Want more productivity? Pay for preventive health and telehealth, govt told
Telehealth saves the equivalent of $480 million a year by reducing travel time for patients, the Productivity Commission says.
The Productivity Commission has urged the Federal Government to overcome its election-cycle thinking and invest in prevention and telehealth to save billions of dollars in the long term.
The commission is tasked with producing economic reports for the government, at a time when the federal Treasurer has warned it will take five years to return to the long-term average productivity growth of 1.2%.
Its social policy commissioner, Dr Angela Jackson (PhD), told a conference last week that investing $1.5 billion in preventive health could save $2.7 billion over the next 10 years.
However, she said only 2% of Australian health spending was allocated to prevention, despite the government’s target being 5% by 2030.
