FED:States sign Gillard's $20b health deal

AAP General News (Australia)
08-02-2011
FED:States sign Gillard's $20b health deal

By Julian Drape

CANBERRA, Aug 2 AAP - The federal government has finally got the states and territories
to sign up to its $20 billion health reform agreement but critics say the plan is now
so watered down it won't end the blame game.

Labor has on a number of previous occasions declared the deal done, only to be later
rebuffed by state premiers demanding more cash and control.

But now the agreement is final.

"This is signed," Prime Minister Julia Gillard said on Tuesday.

"This is done and it's agreed to by all states and territories."

Since former Labor leader Kevin Rudd first announced he'd achieved "historic" reform
16 months ago, the commonwealth has been forced to ditch a number of key planks of the
plan.

Most crucially a proposal for the commonwealth to clawback 30 per cent of the states'
GST revenue in order to become the dominant funder of hospitals was dumped to get Western
Australia on board.

Victoria also had to be appeased with a promise that states would remain the "system managers".

Ms Gillard on Tuesday revealed a number of additional alterations.

The final agreement abandons Mr Rudd's "guarantee" that elective surgery patients will
be treated on time or get free treatment in a private hospital. Now there's simply a "target"

that 100 per cent of people be treated on time.

Further, only 90 per cent of emergency department patients now will have to be admitted,
referred or discharged within four hours, down from the previous 95 per cent target.

The prime minister says the changes were made on the advice of an expert panel which
argued the original guarantee and targets could have had "perverse and unforeseen consequences".

Public hospitals would have been left "scrambling" to find a private bed on a case-by-case
basis, she said.

Now they'll be able to enter long-term contracts with nearby private providers.

Ms Gillard also argued there were instances, such as with drug overdoses, where it
made sense to monitor people in emergency departments for more than four hours.

WA Health Minister Kim Hames says Tuesday's deal, which will see the commonwealth eventually
fund 50 per cent of the growth in hospital costs, should lead to improved health services.

"The commonwealth is increasing its funding above the previous national agreement,"

he told ABC TV.

"(But) the blame game is likely never to end while there is some degree of shared funding."

That's a view shared by the country's doctors. The Australian Medical Association says
the deal is only a "starting point" to achieve genuine reform.

"The blame game is not entirely gone but it's moved and it's changed," association
president Steve Hambleton told reporters in Brisbane.

"The AMA called for a single funder originally to make sure we couldn't have one level
of government blaming the other."

However, the federal government says the deal resolves the issue because fixed funding
will now be administered through a transparent National Health Funding Pool.

"What you won't see is the cycle that we've seen in the past where something goes wrong
in the hospitals (and) premiers say it's because the federal government doesn't fund hospitals
properly," the prime minister said.

Health Minister Nicola Roxon argues the states will no longer "be able to to say the
commonwealth is not shouldering a burden".

But the federal opposition isn't buying that.

Acting Opposition Leader Julie Bishop told reporters in Sydney the blame game would continue.

"All that's happened is that Julia Gillard has provided the states with more money
but with no guarantee of any reforms at all.

"She's capitulated to the states."

Under Tuesday's deal the states and territories are guaranteed an extra $16.4 billion
in growth funding and $3.4 billion for elective surgery and emergency departments by 2020.

AAP jcd/dep/nb

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