2 – Invest in preventive health

Icon shows a small plant with a dollar sign symbol on top.

Australia cannot afford repeated disasters on the scale of COVID-19, whether they are triggered by the next pandemic, or from the rising chronic disease epidemic. One in five Australians have multiple chronic conditions.

The rise in chronic disease prevalence makes people less healthy and less prepared for future pandemics of flu and other emerging infections. The high prevalence of obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease, have been a major contributor to the increased risk of hospitalisation, intubation, and death due to COVID-19, worldwide.

PHAA President (2007-2010), Emeritus Professor Mike Daube AO, on taking stronger preventive action on tobacco products.
PHAA CEO, Adjunct Professor Terry Slevin, on why Australia needs to boost its investment in preventive health to 5% of total health expenditure.

Funding prevention not only saves lives, it saves money; every dollar invested in evidence-based prevention programs yields a greater return on investment than treatment.

ACTION

  • Increase prevention investment to 5% of total annual health expenditure
  • Establish a clear mechanism for funding allocation and reporting
Australia must commit to investing 5% of health expenditure into prevention. Funding prevention saves lives & money, and brings greater return on investment than treatment alone. #VoteForPublicHealth Click To Tweet

Download our election campaign brochure.

Brochure – with photos (3.9MB)

Brochure – text only (836 KB)

%d bloggers like this: