Roxon wooing private health providers

The federal government has hinted at a bigger role for private health providers only
a week before parliament is due to vote on adopting a means test for medical
insurance rebates.
Labor's plans to means test the private health insurance rebate has already been
rejected once by the Senate.
Another no vote would give the government a double-dissolution election trigger.
A week before the scheduled vote, Health Minister Nicola Roxon stressed Labor's
support for private health as it looked at reform of the health sector.
"There is enormous potential for the private sector to play a growing role," Ms
Roxon told ABC television on Monday from Darwin.
Private health providers, the opposition and state governments have expressed
concern that extra pressure will be placed on public hospitals if changes are made
to private health insurance rebates.
Ms Roxon is meeting with state and territory governments to discuss changes to the
national health system.
Catholic Health Australia - which runs 10 per cent of the nation's hospital services
- is opposed to Labor's private health rebate plans.
"We've said to the government ... any measure that takes away incentives to take up
private health insurance will see public hospitals deal with an increased workload,"
chief executive Martin Laverty told AAP on Monday.
The government wants to means test the 30 per cent private health insurance rebate
for singles earning more than $75,000 a year and for couples taking home in excess
of $150,000.
The original bill was rejected in September and is scheduled to go back before the
Senate again when parliament resumes in early February, a spokesman for Ms Roxon
told AAP.
A second rejection would give Labor a double-dissolution trigger.
Ms Roxon said the government was "agnostic" on whether the public or private sector
provided better health services.
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott preferred to focus on Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's
promise to take over public hospitals from the states.
"Before the (last) election, Mr Rudd said if public hospitals hadn't improved by the
middle of last year he would organise a federal government takeover," Mr Abbott told
reporters in Brisbane on Monday.
"Well, the middle of last year has come and gone, and I think the people of
Queensland and in NSW in particular would know that public hospitals are getting
worse, not better."
Mr Abbott made no mention of the private health insurance bill, which the coalition
opposes.