The Abbott government has delayed sensitive health reforms to the second half of the term, raising the risk the Coalition will carry any controversies into its re-election campaign.
Health Minister Sussan Ley last week extended funding for mental health organisations for another 12 months to allow the government more time to consider a review it received at the end of November.
It followed a similar decision to extend funding for alcohol and drug treatment organisations for another 12 months while the government considers a review it originally intended to respond to in the last budget.
Ms Ley has also extended funding for specialist training for 12 months to allow her to consult with the sector on major health workforce reforms.
Delayed reviews have become a theme for the government, which is also yet to detail how it will fix the troubled Personally Controlled Electronic Health Record project, which Primary Health Networks will replace Labor’s Medicare Locals and what emergency department and elective surgery targets it will use to keep state and territory governments accountable.
When the Coalition took power in Canberra, state and territory health ministers were told to await the commission of audit, and the first budget, to determine whether there was any federal funding to support national reforms.
That budget slashed billions from the former Labor government’s future hospital funding agreements with the states, scrapped a preventive health agency and proposed a GP co-payment that was later reworked before being dumped altogether.
The co-payment has been publicly dumped, but Ms Ley has vowed to find a “value signal” for Medicare and reduce bulk-billing rates for those well and wealthy enough to pay.
Ms Ley, who replaced Peter Dutton in December, will front her first health ministers meeting this month ahead of the federal budget in May.
Source: The Australian