COAG health decisions
The Council of Australian Goverments (COAG) meeting held in Canberra has agreed to an historic package of reform to the health and hospital system, according to the official communiqué.
The measures agreed will mean that the commonwealth will provide $64.4 billion in funding over five years for the state health systems, an increase of $22.4 billion over the previous Australian Health Care Agreements. This includes an increase to the Specific Purpose Payments base of $4.8 billion over the forward estimates and a package of reforms under the new hospital and health workforce National Partnership reform of $1.7 billion, including a $1.1 billion health workforce package.
A further package to take the pressure off public hospitals has also been agreed. The package, which totals $750 million in 2008-09, will support emergency departments by providing funding for 1.9 million emergency department services.
In addition, the Commonwealth has committed to a more generous indexation formula which delivers 7.3% per year compared to 5.3% under the previous agreement.
