Next week's budget will certainly foreshadow the mood of the nation, and no doubt target key issues the government must address.

Health spending is expected to be high on the priority list, an issue that was reflected in a poll of Northern readers, which also identified the environment and climate change and the cost of living as the top three issues likely to determine their vote in 2022.

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In the North-West of the state, health was again the top issue with environment and climate and aged care was also important issues for voters.

For Tasmania, a state with an ageing population, some of the country's highest rates of smoking, obesity and chronic illness, few would be surprised that fixing the gaps in the healthcare system ranked number one in both the North and North-West.

Advocates and industry stakeholders have long called for action to address the shortfalls in health infrastructure, aged care, rural health, staffing and access to general practitioners, and with the election expected to be called any day now have outlined the issues both parties must address at this year's election.

For several respondents of the survey, the message was simple, "fix healthcare."

The peak body for doctors in Australia has been a vocal advocate for the Tasmanian health system and in recent weeks travelled to the state to address what it saw as a health system in "crisis".

Atop the list of issues the AMA say must be addressed is the state's health infrastructure, including public hospitals and access to GP and primary health services.

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AMA president Dr Omar Khorshid said as the front line of the health system, GPs and public hospitals were exhausted, and in urgent need of investment.

"Well before the pandemic, Australian hospitals were in crisis. The pandemic has shown there is no spare capacity in our hospitals and the time for action is now," he said.

Dr Khorshid called for the party that won the next election to commit to a five per cent increase in funding for the state's public hospitals, as well as removing the 6.5 per cent commonwealth funding cap.

The call to invest in GP services has been echoed by the RACGP who have called for a strengthening of rural healthcare services through greater incentives for doctors, and changes to the MBS to improve aged care, care for people with disabilities and mental health services.

RACGP Tasmanian chairman Dr Tim Jackson said the commitments would increase recruitment and retention in remote and regional areas, while also improving patient outcomes.

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Changes to the Medicare Benefits Schedule was something Dr Jackson said were well overdue and directly linked to the issue of retention in remote communities as the need to treat complex health conditions grew.

"It's a structural problem, where it was designed from the get-go to remunerate shorter consults more than the longer ones, and that was okay back in the 80s when things weren't so complex, but nowadays we really need to be able to spend more time with patients," he said.

Dr Jackson said the RACGP wanted the government to increase the MBS rebate on longer consultation times that dealt with more complex and chronic conditions, explaining the result would be more remuneration for GPs, better care for the patients and less stress on public EDs and hospitals.

With fewer GP and public health services in the remote and rural parts of Tasmania, the Royal Flying Doctor Service has become an integral health provider for the state, providing primary healthcare services, dental care and supporting the state's aeromedical service.

RFDS chief executive John Kirwan said with dental health not covered under the MBS, more investment into dental services was needed.

He said further funding would allow the RFDS to provide integrated, preventive and restorative dental services in remote communities and areas with large public waiting lists.

The need to improve funding for dental care was echoed by TasCOSS chief executive Adrienne Picone who said the service was one of the most significant gaps in our health system and called for a doubling of commonwealth funding.

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To improve services, a new RFDS base in Launceston has also been identified by the organisation as a key to improving Tasmanian health outcomes, as has a transfer Station on King Island and a Southern base in Hobart.

Tasmania's largest private health insurer has also called for a range of issues to be addressed including reforming the prostheses list, which the organisation has identified as an immediate priority.

According to St.lukes, Australians with private health insurance were paying up to 30 per cent more for the same medical device as people in other countries such as New Zealand, the UK and France.

St.lukes chief executive Paul Lupo said a recent deal struck by the Commonwealth and device manufacturers had not gone far enough to address the issue. "The price of medical devices remains unnecessarily high for private patients," he said.

Restoring the public health insurance rebate was another issue Mr Lupo said needed to be addressed within the next 12 months.

"The rebate was initially introduced to cover 30 per cent of the cost of a private health policy. It puts private health within the means of more people, thereby freeing up space for others in the public system," he said.

"This rebate has not kept step with increasing health service costs, meaning it now covers less than 25 per cent of the cost of a policy for low and middle-income earners.

"While a five per cent erosion of a means-tested rebate may not sound large, in pure dollar terms, it represents $23 million disappearing from the pockets of Tasmanian policyholders every single year."

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