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• Indigenous Chronic
  Disease Package
• Tackling Chronic Disease
  Risk Factors
  • National action to reduce Indigenous smoking rate
  • Helping Indigenous Australians to reduce their risk of chronic disease
  • Local Indigenous community campaigns to promote better health
• Improving Chronic Disease
  Management and Follow up
  • Subsidising PBS medicine co-payments
  • Higher utilisation costs for MBS and PBS
  • Supporting primary care providers to coordinate chronic disease management
  • Improving Indigenous participation in health care through chronic disease self management
  • Increasing specialist and allied health follow up care
  • Monitoring and evaluation
• Workforce Expansion,
  Training and Support
  • Workforce education and training
  • Expanding the outreach and service capacity of Indigenous health services
  • Engaging Medicare Locals to improve Indigenous Access to mainstream primary care
  • Attracting more people to work in Indigenous Health
  • Clinical practice and decision support

Indigenous Chronic Disease Package

The Australian Government’s Indigenous Chronic Disease Package

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At the November 2008 Council of Australian Governments² meeting, the then Prime Minister announced a joint commitment by the Australian and state and territory governments to invest up to $1.6 billion over four years to close the gap in life expectancy between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians within a generation. The Prime Minister’s announcement included $805.5 million over four years from the Australian Government for a package of initiatives to tackle chronic disease.

The Australian Government’s Indigenous Chronic Disease Package provides significant new funding for preventive health, more coordinated and client-focused primary health care, and an expanded Indigenous health workforce.

The Package:

• promotes and supports good health through local community activities and healthy lifestyle programs;
• supports accredited Indigenous Health Services and general practices by providing financial incentives to deliver better health care for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people with chronic disease;
• removes barriers so that patients can better access essential allied health services, specialist care and Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) medicines; and
• builds the capacity of the primary health care system to care for patients by growing the number and skills of the Indigenous health workforce.

²The Council of Australian Governments (COAG) is the peak intergovernmental forum in Australia, comprising the Prime Minister, State Premiers, Territory Chief Ministers and the President of the Australian Local Government Association. The role of COAG is to initiate, develop and monitor the implementation of policy reforms that are of national significance and which require cooperative action by Australian governments.

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Page currency, Latest update: 09 December, 2010

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