Price hikes for alcohol, smokes

A NAJOR report on preventable illness in Australia has called for junk food, alcohol and cigarette price hikes, an increase in the legal drinking age and mandatory salt limits for common foods.

The ACE-Prevention report, which has input from 130 health experts and draws on five years of research, points to the heavy demands on the national health budget and outlines an ambitious agenda for reform.

Total expenditure by government and the private sector on health and residential aged care was forecast to hit $246 billion in 2033, up almost 190 per cent from $85 billion in 2003.

The key recommendations include a ban on alcohol advertising, upping the legal drinking age to 21 and increasing the alcohol tax by 10 per cent more than the current rate for spirits.

Tobacco taxes should also be increased a further five per cent on top of the 25 per cent rise imposed in April this year, while smoking cessation programs should be subsidised.

The report, to be formally released in Melbourne on Wednesday, also calls the imposition of a 10 per cent tax on junk food.

"It would be on all food groups that are non-core, so your sugary drinks, crisps, biscuits and those sorts of products," said Theo Voss, Professor of Public Health and Evidence-Based Policy at the University of Queensland.

"We do know that if you put the price up ... then consumption goes down."

Prof Voss said the reforms would cost $13 billion to roll out but this would be more than matched by savings from not having to treat preventable disease.

It costs $70,000 a year to provide dialysis to one diabetic, and so the report recommends a new regime of screening for the over-45s to detect early stage diabetes and chronic kidney disease.

A "polypill" containing blood pressure lowering ingredients at low dose plus a cholesterol lowering drug should also be made available at an "affordable price" to people at risk of heart disease from age 35, it says.

Further reforms include subsidised lap-banding for the severely obese, a new regime of early health screening for indigenous Australians, bone mineral density tests for older women to detect osteoporosis and boosted skin cancer awareness.

Professor Mike Daube, president of the Public Health Association of Australia, said the benefits of these reforms would also be measured in human lives.

"By acting now, we could prevent a million premature deaths among Australians now alive," Prof Daube said.

"The only real opposition to action will come from commercial interests (so) it is up to governments to take the action that can keep Australians alive and healthy."

The report also highlights current preventative health practices that were of "limited benefit and should be reconsidered".

This included the favouring of expensive cardiovascular drugs over cheaper alternatives, prostate-specific antigen (PSA) testing for prostate cancer, using aspirin to prevent heart disease and school-based illicit drug awareness campaigns.

The ACE (Assessing Cost-Effectiveness in)-Prevention report was funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council.

The full report can be seen online at www.sph.uq.edu.au/bodce-ace-prevention.