Australia's private health sector had a decade of stable growth leading up to COVID-nineteen, And since then, high inflation and other headwinds have posed a series of challenges for the sector in the early twenty twenties. There are new opportunities for investors and providers in the health sector underpinned by regulatory changes, new funding regimes, and a new horizon of technological change, which present many opportunities. The private health sector plays a critical role in our national health system, which continues to be amongst the leading health systems in the world. The sector contributes forty five billion to our country's GDP and employs over seven hundred thousand Australians. Private providers account for forty percent of hospital separations and the majority of primary care visits across the country. The Medicare and PBS government insurance schemes are well established, providing universal access to health care for all Australians.
We see four important themes and trends impacting the private health sector over the next five years. Ageing demographic and chronic disease. By two thousand and thirty, twenty percent of Australians will be over the age of sixty five. This will dramatically drive demand across all services. Furthermore, chronic disease now accounts for eighty seven percent of the disease burden in Australia, and this will continue to affect services as well.
Health, wellness, and patient empowerment. Seventy four percent of Australians now use online tools to book health appointments and interact with their doctors, and these are also driving choice, transparency, and convenience.
Digital health and innovation. Uptake of telehealth surged during COVID and has subsequently stabilised. Virtual care, artificial intelligence and diagnostics, remote monitoring, digital therapeutics, and the e prescribing are all becoming mainstream. Governments are investing significantly in the My Health Record platform, hospital EMRs, and interoperability standards for sharing health information across the public and private systems.
This will spur investment by private providers in their own EMR platforms and cloud practice management systems so as not to lag behind. And lastly, we're expecting to see growth in value based preventative health and integrated care models. Governments and insurers are increasingly supportive of models that reward outcomes over volumes, particularly in aged care and chronic disease management. Retail, tech, and insurance players are integrating their services to provide for whole of consumer health journeys, as well as preventative health programs.
Technology is empowering consumers to better understand their health conditions, consider alternative treatment pathways, and evaluate different health care providers to make informed choices about what they want to do with their health. Investors and operators need to consider the following value creation levers. Invest in scale and platform capabilities, supported by data, patient engagement, workforce automation, and remote monitoring. Doing this quickly and efficiently will separate winners from laggards.
Two, diversify across service offerings and funding models. Understand how funding models are changing, and don't rely purely on traditional funding sources. Look for ways to expand service offerings and diversify revenue streams. Three, position for value based integrated care and remote delivery models.
Build capabilities that support the delivery of multidisciplinary care with the accompanying ability to measure, report and improve patient outcomes in a transparent way. And finally, form partnerships across the value chain. Health is no longer a vertical. Retail, technology, pharma and finance players are all part of the emerging health ecosystem.
Innovate and find ways to create better experiences for both patients and clinicians, leverage data and technology, and optimize based on delivering quality outcomes for patients. The next five years will reward investors and providers who are able to bridge the gap between personalized care and scalable models. They would need to be powered by data, digital infrastructure, and workforce resilience.
