The Secretary of the Department of Health and Aged Care, Blair Comley, has told Catholic Health Australia’s national conference that the Albanese Government was wary of entering the funding dispute between private health care providers and the insurance industry.
“We have to be clear that these are commercial negotiations between parties, and the Government has to be cautious about getting into the middle of that,” Mr Comley told the conference, held in Sydney last week.
He said the data the Government was collecting as part of its private hospital review had underlined the complexity of the market.
He added that healthcare profitability varied widely depending on factors like geography, hospital size, the power of the insurance provider, the services provided, and a myriad of other factors.
The funding crisis facing the country’s private health care sector is growing more acute. Figures released by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority last week showed that the amount insurers are giving back to patients as benefits is continuing to decline.
Mr Comley said there was a fine balance between containing costs and encouraging innovation and that broad or unnuanced intervention risked causing more harm than benefit.
The Government has recently responded to the crisis in the aged care sector by underwriting a substantial wage rise for workers in the sector, and the review into private hospital viability is a critical first step to achieving a sustainable sector.
Mr Comley also used the conference to outline the foundations of what he hopes will become a long-term health strategy for Australia.
He said the Department had four top-line priorities: promoting prevention and early intervention; reducing health and aged care inequalities; enhancing system integration, including the role of the private sector; and leveraging available health tech and digital, both as an enabler and as a disruptor of existing health care options.
“We should be thinking of a system on a 15, 20, 30-year time horizon because time horizons really matter in health.” he said, highlighting training for much of the healthcare workforce needed a 10-year lead time.
Last month, Catholic Health Australia released a position paper showing many private hospitals are struggling to remain viable.
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Health secretary acknowledges funding dispute with insurers (CHA)
