State leaders, at tomorrow's Premiers Conference, must support their health ministers push for more Federal Government funding for public hospitals, the Public Hospitals and Medicare Coalition said today.

The Public Hospitals and Medicare Coalition was formed last week by the NSW Nurses Association, the Doctors Reform Society and Combined Pensioners and Superannuants Association of NSW to campaign in defence of Medicare and public hospitals up until the next federal election.

NSW Nurses Association (NSWNA) general secretary, Sandra Moait, said it would be a major blow to hard-working public hospital staff if the premiers and chief ministers failed to get a better deal for public hospitals under the new Medicare deal.

"The continued emphasis on the cost of the health system ignores the fact the health system is vital to people's quality of life and sometimes to their very life itself.  When nurses are working hard in an emergency department to save someone's life after a care accident they are not thinking about how much it is costing.  And that's the point.  NSWNA members have repeatedly told me they are tired of hearing about how much it costs to keep people healthy or even alive" Ms Moait said.

Doctors Reform Society national president, Dr Con Costa, said the private health insurance industry should not be supported with taxpayers dollars.

"The vast majority of the people who come into my surgery want a well-funded Medicare and public hospital system.  They want the Government to concentrate on providing a first-class public system rather than waste hundreds of millions of dollars on so-called health insurance incentives.

"There is no way the public is getting the same value from a dollar spent on these private health insurance incentives, when compared with the excellent value they get for every dollar spent on the public system.  The premiers and chief ministers must fight for the public system at tomorrow's meeting" said Dr Costa

19 March 1998

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