TONY ABBOTT SECRET PLAN TO END COMMONWEALTH FUNDING OF PUBLIC HOSPITALS

The Abbott Government is considering scrapping all Commonwealth funding for public hospitals, leaked documents have today revealed.
 
According to a leaked copy of the Federation Green Paper prepared by the Prime Minister’s own Department, the Commonwealth is considering stripping more than $18 billion from hospitals every single year.
 
Today’s disturbing revelation comes just one day after reports yesterday exposed Tony Abbott’s secret plan to cut all Commonwealth funding to schools, means-test public education and force the introduction of fees for public school students.
 
The report shows the $60 billion cut from health in last year’s Budget was just the beginning of an even more extreme attack from the Abbott Government on Australia’s public hospitals.
 
It shows Tony Abbott is getting set to wash his hands of every public hospital in Australia.
 
This would mean fewer nurses, fewer operations, longer waiting lists and the collapse of universal access to public hospitals, with access to healthcare rationed to those able to afford private care.
 
It will lead to a blow out in emergency department waiting times and elective surgery waiting times, putting lives at risk.
 
Struggling public hospitals would be decimated, and state governments, already reeling from the 2014 and 2015 Budget cuts to their hospital funding would be unable to even come close to making up the difference. 
 
We already know that this is a Government which can’t be trusted when it comes to health.
 
Under this Government, the growth in hospital services expenditure is expected to fall by 10.2 per cent between 2015/16 to 2018/19. 
 
After promising “no cuts to health” and “no new taxes” Tony Abbott ripped $60 billion out of health in his first Budget then tried to slug all Australians with a GP tax and higher charges for prescriptions.
 
But those cuts would pale into insignificance compared to what is now being planned, with the complete withdrawal of the Commonwealth set to devastate public hospitals and leave Australia with a two-tiered US-style health system.
 
The Government’s secret plan for both schools and hospitals had now been exposed.
 
Only Labor can be trusted to protect and strengthen Australia’s health system.