Go the whole hogg KRudd or leave well enough alone - Part One

Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, has yet again backflipped on a promise to compulsorily acquire around 600 public hospitals owned by the states and territories plus the land they sit on and the staff that run them.

As I have said in the past, the Commonwealth does not have the power to simply slam its fist down on the table. Mr Rudd has admitted this week that a referendum would first be required and historically, there is little chance of a referendum being a success. To get around this, Mr Rudd has offered the states a new deal on health - a softer approach that might save him from immediate embarassment and allow him to force his agenda in a more progressive way.

But what will it achieve? Currently, both the Commonwealth and the states contribute large sums of money to fund public hospitals. As the states have constitutional responsibility for health, the Commonwealth does not directly fund it. The money is handed to the states, which then spend the money as they see fit.

With massive projects like the redevelopment of Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney, it is easy to see that the health system is not in total ruins. However three issues remain and they will not necessarily be resolved by the Commonwealth throwing its weight around. The issues are:

1. Staff incompetence. This doesn't apply to everyone that works in a public hospital or even half of them. However there are a handful of people working as doctors and nurses who clearly should not be there. As a proportion of mistakes made at public and private hospitals, medical staff working at a public hospital are far more likely to make a mistake on the job and have that mistake end up on the six o'clock news.

2. Not enough beds. For whatever reason, most major hospitals around Australia have suffered a loss of bed numbers. In New South Wales, for example, over 1,000 beds have been lost at Royal North Shore Hospital, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and Concord Hospital in the last fifteen years. This is despite a significant increase in Sydney's population and the number of people requiring hospitalisation. More than a dozen hospitals have either been mothballed or closed altogether including Crown Street Womens' Hospital, King George V Memorial Hospital for Women, Royal South Sydney Hospital, Gladesville Hospital, Rozelle (Callan Park) Hospital, Rydalmere Hospital, Royal Newcastle Hospital, Prince Henry Hospital and Western Suburbs Hospital.

3. Hospitals are not paying their bills. Some hospitals are millions of dollars in debt, with some accounts in arrears by more than 90 days. Suppliers are intimidated by the fact that they depend on Government contracts for the survival of their businesses and as a result they keep providing hospitals that are insolvent with more time to pay whilst continuing to supply them with goods and services. If this took place between two privately-owned entities then the directors of both would end up in gaol.

So we need to ask ourselves what the Commonwealth's fineprint is. Will they solve the incompetence issue? Probably not. Good staff are hard to find for any industry and health is no exception. So hospitals are forced to hire whoever they interview. Again, this is not meant to be a reflection on all medical staff but at the end of the day, knowing that one professionally incompetent person may end up operating on you is enough for anyone to try and avoid hospital stays at any cost.

Does the Commonwealth have the money to fix the underfunding problems? No, it doesn't. Thanks to Mr Rudd and Treasurer, Wayne Swan, the Commonwealth has a little, or should I say LARGE, debt problem of its own - to the tune of $315bn. Where's the money coming from? Another Medicare Levy surcharge - which will be placed on everyone. A surcharge of 0.75% is mooted if Mr Rudd gets his way. That translates into a tax burden of around $500 extra for the average worker. And you all thought that healthcare was free - silly you, especially if you voted for this idiot.

Then there is the issue which everyone has forgotten to raise. As I said before, the states contribute massive amounts of money to fund their hospitals. They are unlikely to fund hospitals that they no longer own and control which is why Mr Rudd has plotted the increase in Medicare charges. If the Commonwealth was to succeed in a takeover of public hospitals then would the states lower their taxes in proportion to the sum of money they no longer provide for the running of them? If you think the answer is yes then seriously, who are you kidding? Don't forget that due to Wall To Wall Labor Governments all the states are in debt too. New South Wales has a debt of $42bn. What does your state's debt look like?

It's all fantasy land. Just because a different level of government is calling the shots does not mean that things are going to get better. It will be the same bullshit on a different day and you will be worse off for it. Federal Labor will lie their arses off and fiddle the figures to make their efforts look like an improvement has been made but five years down the track pregnant mothers will still be giving birth to their babies in the toilet blocks of accident & emergency wards and people with meningitis will still get sent home because the quack thinks they only have a cold.

Whilst all this continues to happen, you'll get slugged an extra 0.75% so that Medicare can afford to take over where state funding has left off.

This who affair is another Labor rort. Whilst it is dissapointing to see Labor break another election promise, I am pleased to see that the loss of nerve on the part of Mr Rudd may mean that the states get to keep ownership and management of valuable assets that were paid for by donations, bequests and state/colonial taxes.

The thing that amazes me the most is that Labor doesn't even have its hands on its own tiller. If the Commonwealth Government cannot manage issues that it has constitutional responsibility for then it would be grossly irresponsible for the Commonwealth to meddle in State affairs.

Written at 21:45 on 28 July 2009 by Lord Watchdog.

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