By James Vassilopoulos
The small funding boost for some health programs in the federal budget will not address the massive cuts that occurred in the Coalition's 1996 budget. Nor will it provide the expansion that is needed in the public health system to meet the rising demand as fewer people take out private insurance and more using health services and hospitals.
The May 12 budget included a claimed increase of $2.9 billion dollars over five years for hospital funding; an extension of seniors' card eligibility, costing $26 million in 1998-99; additional funding for veterans' hospital services, worth $125 million per year; $13 million extra for Aboriginal health; the indexation of doctors' Medicare rebates; and an extra $14 million for preventative health programs in 1998-99.
The $2.9 billion over five years for hospitals is the amount that state premiers rejected at the premiers' conference in March. Health ministers from NSW, Victoria, Tasmania, WA, SA and the NT said that the budget did not contain "one extra dollar" for hospitals.
The ministers said that the next five-year agreement contained only $69 million in new spending, rather than the Coalition's claimed $2.9 billion, and that the Medicare offer would mean 1.43 million hospital patients would not be funded over the next five years.
NSW health minister Andrew Refshauge said that the federal government had simply shifted money from financial assistance grants to the states to the health portfolio. "This is using the Visa card to pay the Bankcard", he said. The states are taking a stand on the health issue because they realise that it is one of the greatest of concerns for many voters.
The 1996 budget contained $4.4 billion in funding cuts. In the health portfolio, these included $73 million cut from hospital funding grants to the states, the abolition of the commonwealth dental program, and cuts to the pharmaceutical benefits scheme, pathology funding and residential aged care. Altogether, 25 health items were slashed.
In addition, there was a $1.5 billion dollar cut to the states, over three years, and major cuts to welfare measures which negatively impact on people's health. The Coalition cut $1.4 billion dollars in labour market programs over two years, yet unemployment is a major negative factor in individuals' health.
Unlike the 1996 budget, the 1998 one, coming just before a federal election, is a politically opportunist document. If the Coalition is re-elected, we can expect another round of savage budget cuts soon after.