What to make of the latest announcement of dollars to be invested in medicine by the Federal health minister? Flush with a budget surplus of $17 billion, Tony Abbott has cornered $2.5 billion of this to use in what is termed the “Health and Medical Investment Fund”.
The idea is that the returns on this investment – predicted to be up to $300 million a year if the cash from the sale of Medibank is added in - will be doled out to pay for “new technologies and services” not covered under normal funding arrangements. However, state governments need not apply – this is another case where the Federal government is going direct to the regions.
Tony Abbott is the sugar daddy and his booty will be distributed to those who appear the most attractive. Or as the press release from his office puts it: “decisions on annual spending from the Fund will be made by the government on advice from a panel of expert advisers led by the Commonwealth Chief Medical Officer following a competitive grant application process …”
Call me a cynic but I predict this will end up meaning MRI machines for marginal constituencies. In Tasmania the Federal government has now bought the Mersey Hospital for a dollar and plans to keep it open as a private concern, despite all the sensible advice showing that the region can only support one major hospital. Is this new fund just another attempt to bypass the states?
In Queensland, premier Peter Beattie has described the fund as an obscene “marginal seats spending spree” and says the actual amounts of money available will be just a drop in the ocean (0.2 per cent of overall health spending to be exact). If the government was serious about putting the money to good use, he says, it would have invested the surplus in the next five year health agreement – something Tony Abbott has walked away from and consigned to the “too hard” basket until after the next election.
The AMA has welcomed this additional source of funding and says it should be used to replace ageing equipment and facilities in our hospitals. But public health experts say the fund will do little for urgent areas of need such as Indigenous health and prevention programs. And was it only last week we reported that 120 rural maternity units had been closed over the last decade?
If our resources boom continues we might expect more budget surpluses in future – it will be interesting to hear how the opposition would use such funds to improve health services.
