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Business View Australia - August 2015 29
HEALTHCARE
of chronic diseases is reduced and
expenditure on acute care falls as a
result of this.
Recently, large reductions have been
made in the government’s budget for
the health sector. This would have a
negative effect on many important
programs that are already in place or
in the process of being implemented.
The PHAA is extremely concerned
with the magnitude of the cuts and is
working with a range of organisations
to try and mitigate the effects of the
budget reductions.
It has taken upon itself the task of
highlighting the issue that reductions
totalling approximately $800 million
are being applied to non-government
organisations across the board within
the health portfolio. Being extensively
involved in the nation’s health
sector, the PHAA is well positioned to
understand the implications of these
budget reductions.
The government has revealed that
$596.2 million is to be cut from the
Health Flexible Funds over the next
four financial years. This is in addition
to reductions totalling $197.1 million
announced in the previous year’s
budget. Hence the total cuts are in
the region of $793 million with no
clarity on where these reductions will
be made.
The fact that the funding contracts
for most NGOs will expire by the end
of 2015 or on 30 June 2016 is great
cause for worry. It is expected that
the budget cuts will have a significant
effect in several areas including the
provision of essential services in
remote regions, managing responses
to communicable diseases and
delivering substance use treatment
services around the country.
It is pertinent to note that the OECD’s
most recent figures show that health
spending in the United States is at a
level of 16.4% of GDP in 2013. While
this is much higher than the OECD