Matthew Franklin; 11/7/08
The Catholic Church - the nation’s biggest operator of hospitals after state governments - has warned Kevin Rudd that his move to lift Medicare surcharge levy thresholds will hammer the battlers he wants to help by choking already stressed public wards and lengthening surgical waiting lists. In a devastating critique of one of the Prime Minister’s main 2008-09 budget initiatives, Catholic Health Australia has used government data to warn the change will lump public hospitals with a $400million burden of providing an extra 200,000 procedures in the next 12 months. CHA also predicts elderly people seeking hip and knee replacements will be among the hardest hit and that the changes will trigger an unavoidable 10per cent increase in private health insurance premiums next year.
See: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24001993-2702,00.html
Tags: Australia, health, Human Rights