Healthcare reform debate at its peak before the COAG meeting on Monday

By Dr. Ananya Mandal, MDApr 14 2010

Following the fall out between Premiers on Prime Minister Rudd’s health care reforms more debates have come up. South Australian Premier Mike Rann also urged Victorian Premier John Brumby to come to an agreement with the Prime Minister’s plans. Earlier Mr. Brumby had suggested a 50-50 sharing model in healthcare compared to the model suggested by the PM. He has said that that the federal government's grab for 30 per cent of the states' GST would damage co-operative federalism. Mr. Brumby is expected to outline his reasons at a National Press Club address on Wednesday, April 14^th 2010.

Mr Rann condemned Mr. Brumby’s stand and urged him and other Premiers to focus on the outcome rather than the process. He said, “John Brumby does want that great big extra dollars but doesn't want strings attached and no one's going to do that, not in the real world.” He feels Mr. Brumby should accept the reality and stop fighting a lost cause. He continued, “I just think that there's a bit of chest beating. Ultimately it's about getting an outcome, getting a result as opposed to making a lot of noise and getting no result.” He also said that it he who had supported a 50-50 model in the 2008 Canberra COAG (Council of Australian Governments) meeting and Mr. Brumby had then opposed the plan. “I went to a COAG meeting with Kevin Rudd and other premiers and supported a move towards 50-50 funding…The Prime Minister didn't accept that and neither did John Brumby. He wouldn't support us on it.”

According to Mr. Brumby most Australians would not support Rudd’s plan and that Mr Rudd's Local Area Hospital Networks would “frighten” most voters. Mr. Rann believes otherwise and he says that most Australian people wanted to see Canberra take action on health reform. He said, “They want reform. They want the federal government to be part of the action on health reform. And they don't want politicians, premiers playing games…This is a once in a generation opportunity to build the federal government's support in for future growth in our hospitals and health system. We do not want to see it being aborted by John Brumby or anybody else….If John Brumby's saying that it's non-negotiable to have the GST shift then that will abort the whole change that everyone in Australia wants to see and I think that would be a crying shame.”

According to Rudd, the problems in the hospitals will remain if the premiers don't agree to his health system overhaul. He went on to say that Mr Brumby should know money alone wouldn't fix the health system. He said, "More money for the health system without more reform just means more business as usual…More business as usual just means the same old hospital system with the same old problems."

The COAG meeting is due on 19^th of April, Monday. Mr. Rann will be meeting the Prime Minister on Sunday. He says it will be a "crying shame" if the reforms aren't agreed to. "Let's fix it on Monday, let's have the guts to actually crack a deal," he signed off.