Another day and another lie on hospital funding from Bill Shorten.
Fact: Hospital Funding
Under a new national hospitals agreement with the states and territories, the Morrison Government has committed an additional $31 billion in public hospital funding to increase federal funding for hospitals every year:
Taking overall funding during this period to over $131 billion.
As Opposition Health spokesperson Catherine King confirmed at the National Press Club, Labor will not provide any additional funding within that agreement.
It is a classic example why Bill Shorten can't be trusted - claiming to be offering something but when questioned on the detail, it falls apart.
Instead patients will face massive blow-outs for surgery such has hip and knee replacements, if Labor scraps the private health insurance rebate.
Over 13 million Australians rely on their private health insurance to support them when they are sick.
Modelling has revealed that a drop in private cover to 30 per cent of the population will increase wait times for key surgery by 91 per cent as people queue at public hospitals.
The Morrison Government will protect private health insurance, whilst supporting our public hospitals with record funding.
Patients in every state and territory will also have access to improved health and hospital services under our landmark $1.3 billion Commonwealth Health and Hospitals Program (CHHP) which was part of the over $6 billion boost to hospital funding in the 2019-20 Budget.
This includes projects to upgrade hospitals and establish new treatment centres across Australia to take the pressure of emergency departments across the country.
Only yesterday we announced $33.4 million to build a standalone urgent care service at Logan Hospital and $10 million for the Redcliffe Hospital Paediatric Emergency Department to support patients and take the pressure of local emergency departments.
We will continue to increase funding for every hospital in every community and every state and territory across Australia, with full details available at the Department of Health Funding Facts website, www.health.gov.au/health-funding-facts.
