#ausvotes

Coalition Health Policy

• Summary

  The Coalition are advocates of the Private Health Insurance scheme that provides a 30% rebate for almost half of Australia’s population who maintain private health insurance. The Coalition will increase human resources and their capacity (GP’s & nurses) with incentives to develop skills, relocate and practice in regional and rural areas. Mental health will be heavily invested in. The national health system will prevail with the $15.6b paid to service providers rather than State governments. The Coalition will fund 40% of the costs of the public system but will not require GST revenue from the States.

  
  

  More

  Primary health care underpinned by the Medicare system is the vision for the Coalitions improvement of health services to every Australian. They will provide Australians with the choice of their own General Practitioner, by providing more investment in GP’s and preventative care. Preventative care together with GP’s increased primary care functions will ease pressure on the health system and maximise resources.

  
  

  In order to accommodate greater capacity, existing GP’s will receive funding to develop infrastructure in their practices. After Hours Practice Incentive Payments will highlight the provision of greater primary care by GP’s. Increased Medicare rebates and simplified procedures for GPs will allow greater consultation time with patients with complex or chronic illnesses in particular. MRI services will be made more efficient with greater investment in clinical best practice and the referral process. Flowing from this will be greater efficiency in diagnosis. Medicare rebates for practice nurses will be retained by the Coalition.

  
  

  The Coalition recognise the disparity in health service delivery in rural Australia to that enjoyed in metropolitan areas, and see a shortage of human resources as being the root cause. Accordingly, they will double the number of rural scholarships that provide incentives for medical staff to relocate away from the city. They will increase university places for rural nurses and fund 100 more places, while also paying an annual $10 000 bonus to nurses practicing in remote areas. Additionally, 20 scholarships will be offered to rural dentists.

  
  

  The Coalition recognises the large attrition rate in the nursing profession, and to increase retention of nurses will provide greater ongoing development opportunities for qualified nurses, and early exposure to practical nursing for student nurses. Local participation and regulation into our hospitals, with local hospital boards that are populated by local experts will head a community controlled public hospital system. No longer will centralised bureaucracy control our public health system. Indeed the Coalition will support the nationalised health scheme and ensure that the agreed $15.6b will be allocated to the service providers and not State governments.

  
  

  2800 new public hospital beds will be created to immediately relieve the burden on the public health system, and a dedicated $200m will fund research alone. An additional $35m will be specifically directed toward research into Type 1 diabetes.

  
  

  Funding will be focused on sustainability, and while vulnerable participants such as rural hospitals, research facilities and teaching hospitals will ensure their continuity through loadings and block grants, the Coalition will not demand GST revenue from the States; the Federal government will instead fund an anticipated 40% of the costs of the public health system. If State government wish to voluntarily contribute portion of their GST revenue, the Coalition is prepared to increase the Federal funding of the national health scheme up to 100%.

  
  

  The Coalition will spend $1.5b on mental health. They will provide 800 additional acute and sub-acute care mental health beds. They will provide 20 new psychosis intervention centres and another 60 youth mental health centres under Professor Patrick McGorry’s successful Headspace program. The Coalition will squarely address the issue of homelessness, as in their view it forms an intrinsic part of mental illness.

  
  

  The Coalition intend on protecting the private health system and investing in and improving the public health system. They will not support means testing of the private health insurance scheme. In this fashion, the strain will be taken off the public health system and reduce waiting times. Having introduced the 30% Private Health Insurance Rebate in 2000 when in government, the number of Australians with private health insurance escalated almost immediately from 6 million to almost 9 million. Today, almost 10 million Australians have private health insurance. Informed Financial Consent is imperative in the private health system, and to that end the Coalition will invest heavily to ensure full disclosure is afforded private patients.