Critical budget gaps in diabetes, pathology, and preventive health

Stakeholders have voiced concerns over significant gaps in this week’s Federal Budget, particularly in terms of pathology technology, diabetes care, and preventive health.

Diabetes Australia Group CEO, Justine Cain, highlighted the growing diabetes epidemic, with more than 300 Australians diagnosed with diabetes every day, making the lack of new investment in the sector both surprising and disappointing.

“Of great concern is the fact that the diabetes community has been waiting since last year for the Federal Government’s response to the Parliamentary Inquiry into Diabetes. This budget offered no indication about which of the 23 vital recommendations it might support and fund.

“In addition, hundreds of thousands of Australians in need of diabetes technology subsidies have been waiting to hear whether our call for expanded subsidies for insulin pumps and continuous glucose monitoring devices has been heard. The budget remained silent on this critical issue,” Cain stressed.

Additionally, Diabetes Australia, Australian Diabetes Society (ADS), and the Australian Diabetes Educators Association (ADEA) organisations have been advocating for a boost in diabetes research funding, citing the alarming 33% increase in the number of Australians living with diabetes over the past decade, while research funding has declined by more than 36%.

On the pathology front, a sector that accounts for less than 3% of total healthcare investment yet informs more than 70% of diagnoses and 100% of contagions and cancers, the budget remained disappointing.

Pathology Technology Australia (PTA) CEO, Dean Whiting, emphasised “Broadening our investment in early diagnosis and detection, even by a modest amount, will have broad-ranging positive impact on the health and wellbeing of Australians while supporting a suite of national health goals. Australia’s healthcare future will rely on investing in the pathology technology that stands poised to transform our system into a more predictive, preventative, and personalised model.”

While PTA acknowledged the continued funding for programs like ZERO Childhood Cancer and PrOSPeCT, Whiting stressed that recognition of the value of genomic testing should be fully integrated into the standard of care.

“There is little in this budget representing the systemic reform that is needed to ensure our universal healthcare system remains sustainable and accessible to all. We need generational change, and it needs to start now,” he stated.

The budget also failed to deliver bold commitments in preventive health, a sector that remains critically underfunded. With less than 2% of total health investment currently allocated to prevention, Australia lags behind OECD counterparts.

“We implore this and future governments to enact a precautionary principle to ensure the public’s money is invested in fences at the top of the cliff, rather than ambulances at the bottom of it,” said Public Health Association of Australia (PHAA) CEO, Adj Prof Terry Slevin.

The Western Australian government recently established the first Minister for Preventative Health, setting a national precedent that challenges the status quo. The PHAA has proposed the creation of an investment prioritisation mechanism, similar to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee (PBAC) and the Medical Services Advisory Committee (MSAC), to guide the government on preventive health priorities.

“We urge whoever forms the next Australian Government to create a national Minister for Preventive Health so that person can lead the push for investing 5% of total health expenditure on preventive health measures,” Professor Slevin emphasised.

In reimagining healthcare across the entire patient journey, Health Industry Hub^TM is the only one-stop-hub uniting the diversity of the Pharma, MedTech, Diagnostics & Biotech sectors to inspire meaningful change.

The Health Industry Hub^TM content is copyright protected. Access is available under individual user licenses. Please click here to subscribe and visit T&Cs here.