Australia’s illness system problem and the case for prevention-first reform

Health economist Luke Slawomirski examines how incentives, governance and political decision-making have shaped Australia into an illness-focused system, and what structural reforms are needed to shift investment upstream towards prevention, outcomes and population health.Chapters(00:00) - Intro(00:49) - What an “illness system” looks like in practice(01:47) - The widening gap between lifespan and healthy years(02:36) - Why Australia excels at rescue but struggles with prevention(03:42) - Spending patterns and the imbalance between acute and primary care(05:08) - The political economy of prevention and ribbon-cutting incentives(08:23) - Who the health system is really designed to serve(11:55) - Citizens, governance and setting system-wide priorities(12:28) - The evaluator-general concept and embedded evaluation(16:39) - Performance measures, pay-for-performance and unintended consequences(23:11) - Rethinking the private health insurance rebate(27:54) - Closing reflections📥 JOIN Amplieo+ on Substack for early access to episodes, exclusive videos, and bonus content: https://amplieo.substack.comLEARN more about Amplieo: https://www.amplieo.com📲 FOLLOW Amplieo on socialsLinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/company/amplieoInstagram: https://instagram.com/amplieoYouTube: https://youtube.com/@amplieo Get full access to Amplieo at amplieo.substack.com/subscribe