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| Budget 'lacks in indigenous health' | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Feb 15 2009, 12:28 PM (36 Views) | |
| Warren | Feb 15 2009, 12:28 PM Post #1 |
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Budget 'lacks in indigenous health' May 21, 2008 04:19am Article from: AAP AN independent forecaster has given an overall thumbs up to the Rudd Government's health Budget but savaged changes to the Medicare surcharge and neglect of GP training and rural health. In an analysis commissioned by the Australian Medical Association (AMA), Access Economics brands the doubling of the Medicare surcharge threshold poor public policy. "While the Government claims to understand and appreciate the importance of the private health sector, it has adopted a policy that will harm the private insurers in the first instance," the forecaster said. "Down the track, that will also harm the private hospitals, and whatever harms the private hospitals also harms the public hospitals, which are already struggling with burdens that overwhelm their resources. "A fully functioning private health insurance system is a necessity, not an optional extra." The Medicare surcharge threshold will increase from $50,000 to $100,000 for singles. Couples will be able to earn $150,000, up from $100,000, before they are hit. Health spending is not budgeted to grow relative to gross domestic product, Access Economics said. "So services will have to be rationed and fewer people will be able to fall back on private provisioning," the forecaster said. "This is a recipe for worsening health inequities and outcomes." The Government has talked the talk on indigenous health but it has not budgeted to make any real inroads towards closing the 17-year life expectancy gap within a generation, the forecaster said. "There is goodwill and a readiness to engage the problems and the communities in a constructive way," Access Economics said. "(But) the new funding committed in this Budget falls short of the amount we believe is needed to make a difference." Rural health has been left to languish in the "too-hard basket," the forecaster said. "The recent rural health workforce audit showed a dire need to build the medical workforce in rural areas," Access Economics said. "There will be disappointment that the Budget lacks the big ticket spending on major workforce programs or rural hospital infrastructure." Some $445 million has been slashed from service provision, Access Economics said. The $275 million to be spent on 31 GP Super Clinics would be better spent adding to existing infrastructure, the forecaster said. Part of the $10 billion Health and Hospitals Fund (HHF) should be spent on the health workforce, not just infrastructure, it said. "It could fail ... if state and territory governments seize upon it as a means to drop the ball on their health capital funding commitments," Access Economics said. "It does look like a sitting duck for cost-shifting." AMA president Rosanna Capolingua said $500 million a year should be drawn from the HHF and spent on indigenous health, while $400 million was needed to improve rural health. She said the number of medical graduates was expected to double by 2012 but cuts had been made to clinical training places, which skill graduates in specialties including general practice and obstetrics. Dr Capolingua said she hoped the Federal Government would deliver $4 billion to the states in the next Australian Health Care Agreements, which were due to be finalised by December, and come into effect mid next year. She said the funding should be indexed at eight to nine per cent, rather than the current five per cent indexation rate. |
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6:22 AM Jul 12