Health Minister Greg Hunt will promise an extra $30 billion for hospitals from 2020 but the offer may not be enough to stave off a messy health funding fight.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The Labor-held states of Victoria, Queensland and South Australia are expected to argue the money will leave them short-changed, and the NSW Liberal government has also signalled it could demand more from the federal government.
The offer will be put on the table by Canberra during a Council of Australian Governments meeting on Friday.
A draft funding deal obtained by Fairfax Media on Wednesday revealed the Commonwealth wants to continue to pay 45 per cent of hospital funding, while spending growth would be capped at an annual 6.5 per cent for the five years from 2020. Those are the same terms as the current 2017-2020 agreement.
But Mr Hunt went on the offensive on the eve of the meeting, heralding "record hospital funding" which would mean "more doctors, more nurses and importantly more services and support for Australian patients".
He said the 6.5 per cent annual increase in funding amounted to $30 billion in extra money for hospitals over five years.
"This is a funding increase of 31 per cent, which provides almost $128 billion [in total funding] over the next five years to public hospitals around Australia," he said.
"Every year would be a record funding amount, in each and every state and territory.”
NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard said health spending accounted for one-third of his state's budget.
“Any new agreement would have to give capacity to deal with the anticipated growth in health funding through population pressures, and increasing complexity of treatments," he said.
Mr Hazzard's comments can interpreted as a sign NSW wants a higher cap on annual funding cap than the 6.5 per cent proposed.
Canberra's offer is less than the 50 per cent Commonwealth funding offered by the Gillard and Rudd governments, and by federal Labor at the 2016 election. But it is more generous than the Abbott government's 2014 budget.
On Thursday, a furious Victorian Labor government said the federal Coalition's post-2020 offer would leave it $2 billion worse off, compared to federal Labor's offering. Queensland and South Australia also slammed the federal offer.
"If [Malcolm] Turnbull thinks we're gonna sign on and validate the fact that they have broken their promises, they've not funded health properly and patients are suffering, well he's got another thing coming," Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said.
The Turnbull government hopes to sign off on the post-2020 hospital deal by the end of 2018.
