The PM says the feds can ‘go it alone’. What exactly does that mean for public hospital funding?
The states have rejected the Commonwealth’s final offer of $23 billion for public hospital funding and now the future of the National Health Reform Agreement comes down to whether the prime minister will see through his threat to “go it alone”.
State health ministers came out of the Health Ministers Meeting in Brisbane today saying the federal government’s deal was “not sufficient” and “did not meet the needs of Australians”.
“We are disappointed that an agreement is yet to be reached and will continue to advocate collectively for health funding to reach a Commonwealth contribution of 42.5% by 2030, so we can deliver real reform in line with the original intent of the NHRA,” the ministers said in a collective statement delivered to the media after the meeting.
“While the $2 billion over four years offered alongside the NHRA to support states’ and territories’ efforts to transition older patients medically fit for discharge into aged care from hospital is welcome, it should be considered business as usual for the Commonwealth as primary funder and policy maker for the aged care system.
“We also today raised concerns about the more than 3000 older Australians stranded in hospital beds with nowhere else to go, placing more pressure on public hospitals.”
Queensland’s Tim Nicholls – who was reprimanded by the PM earlier this week for leaking news of an additional $3 billion offer from the Commonwealth to the media – had dinner with his federal counterpart Mark Butler last night.
“It was really important that we were able to once again press the case for appropriate funding of the National Health and Reform Agreement, including the proper funding for stranded patients to minister Butler,” Mr Nicholls said after today’s meeting.
“The offer that we received overnight on Wednesday does not meet that requirement.”
ACT health minister Rachel Stephen-Smith told the media the states and territories wouldn’t be lectured to by the Commonwealth about efficiencies in the hospital system.
“We all have an incentive to deliver care and services as efficiently as we possibly can. But many of the factors driving that cost of service delivery are completely outside the control of states and territories,” she said.
The question now is, what will the prime minister, Mr Butler and Cabinet do next?
This morning Mr Albanese was bullish, saying the Commonwealth would “go it alone” if an agreement wasn’t reached with the health ministers today.
“The Commonwealth does have other options,” he said on Thursday.
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Mr Butler came out of today’s meeting trying to stay positive, but saying the federal government was preparing a “fallback plan” if an agreement could not be reached before Christmas.
“The runway is getting shorter and shorter for this deal,” he said.
“The prime minister made clear in his letter, and has made clear in his public commentary, that of course we are planning fallback options in the event that we can’t strike a deal.
“I imagine the state governments are doing exactly the same. That is what a responsible government would do.
“I don’t want to get to that position, the prime minister doesn’t want to get to that position but responsibly, we are planning for the possibility we don’t strike an agreement with states and territories.
“I don’t think that’s likely. I think we will get there.”
Then again, Mr Butler also said today’s meeting was “productive and constructive”.
“Our job as health ministers has been to narrow the points of disagreement down to a manageable list that our bosses, the prime minister, the premiers and chief ministers can hopefully come together before the end of the year and crunch through and finalise an agreement on before Christmas,” he said.
TMR understands Mr Butler was also seeking a recommitment from the states to the Thriving Kids initiative, as well as to his plan to reduce the growth rate of the NDIS to between 5% and 6%, below the 8% the states agreed to in 2023’s national cabinet meeting.
No word yet on how that part of the discussion went.
