Australia's next health system

Regardless of which party is in Government in 2008, the negotiations over the next Health Care Agreements will represent one last, final chance to reform Australia’s health care system before it breaks.

The Health Minister has said that current arrangements are “inherently unsatisfactory”, and he has from time to time flirted with taking over the running of public hospitals.

But John Howard has repeatedly over-ruled Tony Abbott and most of the talk from the Howard Government is about what they cannot or will not do, rather than what they will do. There is certainly no mention of reform.

In contrast, a Beazley Labor Government would be a government of reform, prepared to build the health system we need for this century.

While the measure of a good health care system is the health of the population and the outcomes achieved when people pass through the system, it is also imperative that we operate on sound economic principles, and ensure that public dollars are invested wisely. The two are not incompatible.

These principles should be interdependent. Our health system needs reform to achieve sustainability, to remove financial barriers to care for those who face them, to address health inequalities, and to improve health outcomes for the whole population.

That is why the next Health Care Agreements are too important to be left undiscussed until after the next election.

A Beazley Labor Government would use the next Health Care Agreements as the first stage of health reform. But without imminent election pressure, a re-elected Howard Government will undoubtedly take the opportunity to reduce its funding support for public hospitals.

So what should the next Health Care Agreements look like?

The first step on the road to real reform is building better partnerships between the Commonwealth and the states. The states have been desperate for reform, and an incoming Beazley Labor Government could harness their passion for reform to build a better health system.

The states understand that the current health system produces a whole lot of irrational results simply because of cost shifting.

The Howard Government can under-fund aged care knowing state-administered public hospitals will pick up the load but this is bad for patients and more expensive for the system.