Policies > Health

A national health system: The Federal Government should take full financial responsibility for the health of all Australian people. This includes Medicare, Public Hospitals, Aged Care, Nursing Homes and Disabilities.

Australia has an adequate hospital system that could be significantly improved. No State Governments will start improvements by getting rid of the state governments/federal government 60:40 arrangement as they both have been playing the blame game for too long. Under the current system, no one is ultimately accountable to the Australian people and no politician wants to take responsibility for the problems of the Health System.

Each Hospital should have an independent hospital board who is responsible for their operating budget each year. Funds will come directly from the Federal government. These hospital board members should consist of local doctors, nurses, community representatives from the local council as well as other people with skills to contribute.

Primary Health Care: "Prevention is better than cure" Australia has one of the highest hospitalisation rates in the world. We can lower this by investing more money into strategic investments in prevention of diseases and illnesses.

Significantly more money should be spent on promoting a healthy lifestyle. This includes the government subsidising sport for people at all ages. Nutrition for a healthy lifestyle is very important so the government should take steps to ensure that fresh fruit and vegetables are available to all Australians especially those in remote parts of Australia. We support higher taxes on alchol and tobacco to pay for these measures.

Lowering the cost: For each single hospital bed sitting there in a ward costs $600 per day when you calculate all the overhead costs in hospitals divided by the number of beds. Then the costs increase again when a patient is in the bed. Many patients spend too long in hospital either days before surgery or many days after. It would be much more cost efficient to send people comunity health clinics which people can go to before and after operations. These clinics would have doctors and nurses like hospitals but with less overhead costs that hospitals have.

Disability services: Disability services should be 100% funded by the Commonwealth. Currently there is a 80:20 Federal/State funding arrangement with constant disagreements on funding. All funding should come from the one bucket of funds in Canberra and distributed to each state public service, eliminating the need for state politicians and the blame game to continue.

We support a Medicare levy style tax so that the disabled Australians (Not limited to the Blind, Deaf, the physically handicapped, the mentally ill etc). A tax of 0.3% of Gross income will cover the costs of disabled Australians current and future needs.

The organisation of disability services should be done at the local level following national policy. But suggestions for improvement from the local level should have direct voice to the policy makers at the national level.

We believe the government should provide more funding for daily/weekly respite care to give thousands of parents a break from the difficulties of having a disabled child and loved one.

The best way to measure the health of a nation should be by how the nation treats its weakest and most disadvantaged citizens.

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Policies > Health

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