News
Preventable Illness Needs Urgent Action |
| Spokesperson: | Nicola Roxon MP - Shadow Minister for Health |
| Date: | Wednesday, 21 February 2007 |
| Category: | National Health News |
| Preventable illness desperately needs action now, but is being ignored by a Government too focused on short term goals and clever politics. Shadow Health Minister Nicola Roxon has called for consideration of a national preventative health taskforce – which already exists in the US and Canada - to evaluate and make recommendations to Government on the basis of the safety, effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of prevention programs. In a speech to the Australian Financial Review Annual Health Congress today, Ms Roxon described the Government’s failure to tackle preventable illness as a squandered opportunity. Failure to invest in health prevention harms our children, and harms Australia’s productivity. The Howard Government has staked its reputation on economic management. But just as the Stern Report made clear that the environment cannot be separated from the economy, it is also clear that reducing preventable illness cannot be separated from our nation’s productivity and future prosperity. For example - cardiovascular disease, which can often be prevented with moderate exercise, is the most expensive disease group in Australia. Access Economics estimates that obesity cost Australia $21 billion in 2005 – almost double the cost of running Medicare! Ignoring the desperate need to act now to turn the tide of preventable illness is similar to the Government’s stick-their-heads-in-the-sand attitude to climate change. This is an area that the Government has known about for eleven years, ignored for eleven years, and failed to take any action on in eleven years. Business as usual will not deliver the changes we drastically need. Much like climate change, if we continue doing what we are doing now, our children and our grandchildren will not forgive us. |
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