We have more health commissioners, including for genomics, and we both hope for a more meaningful discussion on weight loss therapies, the opportunities, access barriers, and their system-changing impact. Telehealth is here to stay, particularly in specific therapeutic areas, while one state has introduced political donations reform that could have a broader impact.

The health department has released its incoming ministerial brief to the reappointed Mark Butler, revealing internal government discussions over the future funding of new PBS listings, and hinting at limiting the implementation of the HTA Review recommendations to a small number of technologies. It also contradicts the claim that new PBS listings take 466 days from TGA registration, suggesting that it actually takes almost 650 days.

In a country as wealthy as Australia, how is it fair or equitable that some can pay for new treatments, while most are forced to wait, while the government uses a laborious multi-year process to negotiate the best deal for itself? We are forced to live with a system that regularly treats human health like a failing business. Are we worth saving? We also live with a system whose underpinning framework is often considered inviolable and virtually unimpeachable.