| Publication: | The Age |
|---|---|
| Date: | 25 January 2010 |
| Section: | Breaking News National |
Stephen Johnson
The federal government has hinted at a bigger role for private health providers only a week before parliament is due to vote on adopting a means test for medical insurance rebates.
Labor's plans to means test the private health insurance rebate has already been rejected once by the Senate.
Another no vote would give the government a double-dissolution election trigger.
A week before the scheduled vote, Health Minister Nicola Roxon stressed Labor's support for private health as it looked at reform of the health sector.
"There is enormous potential for the private sector to play a growing role," Ms Roxon told ABC television on Monday from Darwin.
Private health providers, the opposition and state governments have expressed concern that extra pressure will be placed on public hospitals if changes are made to private health insurance rebates.
Ms Roxon is meeting with state and territory governments to discuss changes to the national health system.
Catholic Health Australia - which runs 10 per cent of the nation's hospital services - is opposed to Labor's private health rebate plans.
"We've said to the government ... any measure that takes away incentives to take up private health insurance will see public hospitals deal with an increased workload," chief executive Martin Laverty told AAP on Monday.
The government wants to means test the 30 per cent private health insurance rebate for singles earning more than $75,000 a year and for couples taking home in excess of $150,000.
The original bill was rejected in September and is scheduled to go back before the Senate again when parliament resumes in early February, a spokesman for Ms Roxon told AAP.
A second rejection would give Labor a double-dissolution trigger.
Ms Roxon said the government was "agnostic" on whether the public or private sector provided better health services.
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott preferred to focus on Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's promise to take over public hospitals from the states.
"Before the (last) election, Mr Rudd said if public hospitals hadn't improved by the middle of last year he would organise a federal government takeover," Mr Abbott told reporters in Brisbane on Monday.
"Well, the middle of last year has come and gone, and I think the people of Queensland and in NSW in particular would know that public hospitals are getting worse, not better."
Mr Abbott made no mention of the private health insurance bill, which the coalition opposes.
© 2010 AAP
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