Premiers to take health funding fight to Anthony Albanese at national cabinet

Daniel Andrews says premiers will ask the Albanese government to extend Covid provisions to fund public hospitals 50:50 at Friday’s national cabinet meeting.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews says he will be pushing for the current hospital funding arrangements to be extended at this week’s national cabinet meeting. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Crosling

Daniel Andrews says he expects a “united front” from all premiers and chief ministers at Friday’s national cabinet meeting, in demanding that the Albanese government maintain public hospital funding rates which were increased during the Covid pandemic.

Prior to the pandemic, the federal government provided 45 per cent of public hospital funding, capped at annual growth of 6.5 per cent, with the remainder coming out of state and territory budgets.

The Morrison government agreed to increase funding to a 50:50 split when Covid-19 hit, with that agreement now due to expire on September 30.

The commitment was worth $1.56bn to Victoria this financial year.

The estimated total cost to the federal budget of moving to 50:50 funding and removing the 6.5 per cent cap is approximately $5bn this financial year, and $20.5bn over four years.

“I’m very clear about this: I don’t want the new federal government to proceed with Mr Morrison’s cutbacks that were scheduled to take effect in September, 50:50 is fair,” Mr Andrews said on Monday.

The Victorian Premier said 50:50 represented a “true partnership”.

“Capping funding at six and a half per cent when you know that you’ve got so much catch up to do, you’ve got flu and Covid and everything else you normally deal with, that doesn’t make any sense to me.

“So we’ve got a national cabinet meeting at the end of this week, and I think that there’ll be a united front, from all first ministers to the commonwealth, that it is not responsible, it is not fair, it is not appropriate to proceed with that cutback.”

Mr Andrews said he would call for the current arrangements to extend for the remainder of the 2022-23 financial year.

“Then that means we’ve got time to talk about health reform, and how we can all work together to improve the system,” he said.

“That’s a really important process, and I think we’re all committed to that, but we can’t do that at a time where the commonwealth government might well be doing less. That wouldn’t make any sense to anybody.

“So that’ll be our position I think, certainly my position, and I think that other colleagues will be very supportive of that as well.”