States give PM two-week deadline to hand over $609m health funds

State and territory health ministers are demanding the federal government hand over $609m in contested public hospital funding.

Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt. Picture: Darren Leigh Roberts

State and territory health ministers are demanding the federal government hand over $609 million in contested public hospital funding within two weeks or they will refer the dispute to the Council of Australian Governments for a pre-election showdown.

At a COAG Health Council meeting in Adelaide yesterday, Liberal ministers in several states joined a campaign led by their Labor counterparts in Queensland and Victoria to block the 2016-17 funding reconciliation.

Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt has already accepted the ­advice of the Independent Hos­pital Pricing Authority and funding administrator to claw back $609.3m in funding the states were expecting for services ­already delivered.

The states have considered ­action against the IHPA and the administrator but yesterday ­decided to bring the matter to a head, in an unprecedented test of the funding system and its political oversight. If the funding is not forthcoming, the dispute will be ­referred to COAG before its meeting in December. That means Scott Morrison, who as treasurer initiated the review that sparked the dispute, may have to negotiate a resolution before the election.

“Every single state and territory has opposed the determination outcome,” Queensland Health Minister Steven Miles said after the meeting. “But Minister Hunt did not have the authority to negotiate a resolution. Prime Minister Morrison will now need to personally intervene, under the dispute-resolution clauses of the health agreement.”

At the meeting, ministers also agreed to revisit the issue of temporary visa holders ineligible for Medicare incurring debts for health services. An expert advisory council will consider options, which in the past have included making private health insurance compulsory for all visitors or imposing a special levy.

Federal, state and territory governments will also work on a national obesity strategy and a ­nat­ional approach to pharmacist-­administered vaccinations, and discuss where new MRI ­machines should be located. The issue of mandatory reporting of doctors’ mental health concerns was also on the agenda again, ministers accepting “the need to establish a reporting threshold that balances the interests of consumers and health practitioners”.