ALP propaganda on WA health system distorts facts

6/2/96

Health Minister Kevin Prince today attacked ALP propaganda which distorted the facts about Western Australia's health system.

Mr Prince said blatant misinformation criticising the State's performance in the health sector was being spread by Federal Labor politicians during whistle stop election visits.

He said these attacks were a cynical ploy which ignored the real needs of patients by diverting attention away from the Labor Party's own shortcomings in the health area.

Statements and a graph presented to the public this week by Federal Finance Minister Kim Beazley were just one example of a gross distortion of the facts.

"The ALP, through Kim Beazley and locally through State Opposition health spokesman Geoff Gallop, have attempted to paint all the States, including WA, as petty penny-pinchers," Mr Prince said.

"Mr Beazley and others have circulated a graph which purports to show that the Commonwealth has increased funding to WA's public hospital system while the State has reduced funding.

"This is wrong.

"This is not the whole picture. It does not take into account the fact that the Commonwealth actually decreased funding in some areas while seeming to increase it in others.

"The only thing the ALP has proved with this graph is that it is a master of manipulating figures and distorting reality."

The facts are:

+          there has been no significant change in funding levels to Western Australia's health system from either the State Government or, more importantly, the Commonwealth;

+          in 1993-94, the Commonwealth transferred to Medicare funding for WA hospitals $70 million, decreasing Financial Assistance Grants to the State by the same amount; and -

+          WA gained no advantage from these changes.

               HEALTH EXPENDITURE IN WESTERN AUSTRALIA

"These figures dispel the myth that the Commonwealth has substantially increased funding to hospitals or, as has been claimed by Geoff Gallop, that increasingly large amounts of money are being syphoned from hospitals to other areas," Mr Prince said.

"These claims are patently ludicrous.

"Our public hospitals face the added burden of decreasing numbers of private patients being treated in public hospitals and paying for it through private health insurance.

"This revenue earned by the hospitals has consistently dropped in recent years as people opt out of private health insurance in droves.

"There has been a $13.5 million drop in this revenue between 1993-94 and 1995-96, with some 27,000 Western Australians dropping health insurance in the past year.  All this adds to the drain on resources throughout the health system."

Media contact: Stacey Molloy 366 0300 or 222 9595