Swan accused of taking $65m from health

22 October 2012 AAP

VICTORIAN Health Minister David Davis says public hospitals will be under extra pressure due to the commonwealth’s changes to private health insurance.

Mr Davis has also criticised the commonwealth’s $700 million of cuts to the private health insurance rebate.

The federal government had tampered with population estimates to hold back $65 million from the states, he said.

Responding to the federal government’s mid-year economic and fiscal outlook (MYEFO) report, Mr Davis said it would impact on public hospitals that had already worked out their budgets.

“For the commonwealth government to come out in October and rip back tens-of-millions of dollars from Victoria and other states is going to have a devastating impact,” he told reporters on Monday.

“It shows that the commonwealth is desperate to pull money out of health and to take it back to their Treasury.”

Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan announced $16.4 billion in savings over four years as part of the update to the May budget, including reforms to private health insurance.

The private health insurance rebate will no longer be paid on people’s entire premiums when they rise by more than the consumer price index.

Mr Davis said tampering with indexation whittled away support for private health insurance, which would mean fewer people taking out cover and flood the public system.

“There will be less people take out private health insurance and there will be more load come back onto public hospitals,” he said.

“That will put a load on our emergency departments, it will put a load on our elective surgery, it will put a load on our public system overall.”