Emigrating to Australia for good health
13 September 2016 by News DeskEmigrating to Australia will mean you’ll live longer than ever before as death rates continue to fall, and most people consider themselves to be in good health.
“Australia has much to be proud of in terms of health,” said Barry Sandison, CEO of the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.
If Australia had a population of just 100 people, 56 would rate their health as ‘excellent’, or ‘very good’ and 29 as ‘good’.
However, 19 out of 100 people would have a disability, 20 a mental health disorder in the last 12 months and 50 people would suffer at least one chronic disease.
Mr Sandison said the influence of lifestyle factors on a person’s health was a recurring theme.
“13 out of 100 of us smoke daily, 18 drink alcohol at risky levels, and 95 do not eat the recommended servings of fruit and vegetables.
“And while 55 do enough physical activity, 63 of us are overweight or obese.”
Emigrating to Australia for good health
While lifestyle choices were a major contributor to the development of many chronic diseases, other factors such as income, education and whether people had a job all affected our health, for better or worse.
As a general rule, every step up the socioeconomic ladder is accompanied by an increase in health.
“Compared with people living in the highest socio-economic areas, people living in the lowest socioeconomic areas generally live about three years less, are 1.6 times as likely to have more than one chronic health condition, and are 3 times as likely to smoke daily,” Mr Sandison said.
Australian services are delivered by a mix of public and private providers that includes more than 1,300 hospitals and about 385,000 nurses, midwives and medical practitioners.
Of the $155 billion spent on health in 2013–14, $145 billion was recurrent expenditure. Hospitals accounted for 40% of recurrent expenditure ($59 billion), primary health care 38% ($55 billion), with the remaining 22% spent on other health goods and services.
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