Population health planning for health equity

Australia's health reform documents make reference to the need to address health equity and strengthen population health planning. They make a stronger case about the need to address equity than policy documents that have preceded them. However, they do not make clear that health care is one of many determinants of health and equity, and that planning for health care, social care and social health outcomes are necessary for effectiveness. In other words, population health planning is much more than health care planning. Population health plans vary in their intent and design, depending on the population catchment for the plan, the remit of the organisations involved and the paradigms from which the plan is written. A stronger vision is necessary if population health plans are to affect health inequities. Comprehensive population planning is necessarily intersectoral with engagement across a wide cross-section of government department policies, portfolios and data sources, with a focus on the determinants of health and inequity, and a sound foundation of social values. This paper unpacks the elements of population health planning, the data sources that may be used and their interrogation in terms of the determinants of health, and presents core principles that distinguish population health planning from other types of planning to ensure that planning is comprehensive and able to be actioned.