COAG to work out deal on proposed health reforms

By Candy Lashkari

NSW Premier Kristina Keneally was hopeful that Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s health reforms proposed would be beneficial to the states despite the major opposition that it has seen. Ms Keneally chaired a teleconference on Monday night with first ministers after Mr Rudd released the full details of his health reforms.

Despite a list of concerns about the specific proposals of governance and operation of the hospital networks and the efficiency pricing issue, not to mention how the changes impact the individual budgets, Ms Keneally feels that the health reforms would be good in the long run.

She hoped to push the prime minister on plans related to e-health, dental care and mental health when they met on Tuesday night. Ms Keneally said, “Tonight I have the opportunity to sit down face to face with the prime minister and I will be raising that with a number of other issues that NSW is putting on the agenda.”

Essentially the prime minister wants to divert one third of the states GST revenue to hospital networks with the federal government providing 60% of the cost of hospital treatment. The Council of Australian Governments or COAG meet on Monday the 19^th of April to try and work out a deal on the proposed health reforms.

One of the most outspoken critics of the reforms has been the Victoria Premier John Brumby. Mr Brumby disapproved of Mr Rudd’s hardline approach on Fairfax Radio, where he said, “You've got to go back a long way, probably to the Bjelke-Petersen [Queensland] government in the 1970s, for the last time I can remember that a government held the states to ransom and said 'If you don't do things the way I tell you, I'm going to take money off you'”

Mr Brumby thought that it was unlikely that an agreement would be reached in time for the COAG’s meeting on Monday. "There's no agreement on the GST, I think there's going to be a big debate about how much extra money is on the table." said Mr Brumby.

Federal Opposition Leader Tony Abbott supported Mr John Brumby’s viewpoint when he said, “This is not a comprehensive plan. Why would Premier Brumby give up 30 per cent of his GST so that he can have local hospital boards and case-mix funding, given that they have always been there in the Victorian system?”

Mr Abbott has come under criticism from the government before for not having a clear standing on the health issue. He has accused the prime minister of “game playing” by waving the “big referendum stick over the states’ heads” when he had no need to.

The federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon was hopeful that the COAG meeting would see the health care reforms being approved. "We're very hopeful it will be a constructive discussion and that Premier Brumby, and other premiers, will be convinced that together we can deliver a better outcome if we sign on to these plans," she said.

With so many conflicting opinions and a large chunk of finances involved the COAG meeting should see a fair share of fireworks on Monday.