Health Policy Roundtable

Key policy issues facing Australia's health sector include looming cost pressures, concerns about equity of health care provision and institutional barriers to the efficient operation of the markets for medical specialists.

Such policy issues continue to demand systematic consideration. To this end, the Productivity Commission and Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research jointly organised a Health Policy Roundtable in March to build momentum for an informed and productive policy debate.

The Roundtable drew together thirty leading practitioners and analysts on health policy issues. The topics covered included international developments in health policy, cost pressures in health care systems, access and service delivery, supplier-induced demand and occupational regulation.

The Health Policy Roundtable proceedings include papers prepared by the speakers, responses by discussants and summaries of the issues raised in general discussion.

Based on international and Australian experience some general observations from the Roundtable were:

• countries face similar problems and sometimes adopt similar approaches to handling them (often not based on evidence);
• single payer systems may offer the greatest potential to control costs;
• in future overriding cost pressures will be on the demand side;
• most countries still face problems in delivering health care efficiently;
• significant inequities in health care persist;
• evidence on supplier-induced demand is incomplete and inconclusive; and
• there is scope to consider reform to regulations affecting the entry process to markets for medical specialists and the current approach to medical workforce planning.

Further information

02 6240 3330 / media@pc.gov.au