Some of the things we cannot do with the third rate MTM mess that is already costing more than the FTTH rollout. From an article by Nick Ross, Sep 2013:
Meaningless phrases and numbers
Many people are sick of hearing nebulous terms like 'superfast broadband' and jargon like 'jigabits per second' and 'download speeds.'
Telehealthcare ignores all of that and treats the NBN like the infrastructure that it is - a network which provides a medical-grade, reliable connection to each home and a complete standardisation of equipment - i.e. 'one box and one interface for everyone' - instead of the hotchpotch, 'every-situation-is-different' situation that we have today.
Why is this important?
Australia's ballooning health spend
According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, the country spent over $121bn on healthcare between 2009-10. The following year it surpassed $130bn and it's been rising at six per cent each year - twice the growth rate of GDP.
Healthcare expenditure currently makes up 10 per cent of GDP but analysts Mark Dougan from Frost and Sullivan says that, "At the current rate, in perhaps about ten years or so, it will hit 15 per cent of GDP - mostly from public sources." He points out that this growth rate is "unsustainable."
According to South Australia Health's October 2012 report:
Quote:At the time we released the 2007 South Australian Health Care Plan, if SA Health had continued spending at the same rate, then by 2032 the entire State budget will be consumed by Health alone. Our efforts to reduce growth in demand has now pushed this back to 2038. Slowing the growth in demand, however, must be accompanied by providing more efficient services in order to deliver a balanced budget...
Peter Croft from Allocate (healthcare) Software adds, "Most State governments have identified a point in the future where the growth in funding for health is going to consume the entire state budget."
The problem is that improvements have to come from efficiency gains and not spending cuts. As Stephen Duckett and Cassie McGannon said recently in The Conversation:
Quote:Reducing health spending growth will not be easy. As
Grattan's Game-changers report last year showed, Australia already has one of the OECD's most efficient health systems, in terms of life expectancy achieved for dollars spent. Sweeping cuts to health funding, or shifting costs to consumers, could have serious consequences. Blunt cost-cutting risks reducing health and well-being, and could ultimately lead to higher government costs due to illness, increased health-care needs and lower workforce participation.
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