New South Wales, South Australia, Victoria and the Northern Territory are among those who have raised concerns over the proposed changes, while the Queensland LNP and Tasmanian Liberal governments have gone further, calling for the plan to be ditched.<\/p>\n
Speaking after the meeting, federal Health Minister Mark Butler said he recognised the changes would be a cost-of-living hit for older Australians, but the state of the budget bottom line meant there was little money available for new spending.<\/p>\n
“This is not a decision I particularly would like to have made in ordinary circumstances, but this is one of those difficult choices we have to make,” he said.<\/p>\n
“For those who are opposed to it, including my state minister colleagues, I say, where else are we going to get that $3 billion to invest in the beds that they’ve just been arguing for here? You know, these are about choices.”<\/p>\n
People over 65 to pay more for private health<\/a><\/p>\n The federal government argues the move will help re-establish fairness across the generations.<\/p>\n The federal government’s modelling has indicated that about 44,000 Australians would dump their private health insurance as a result.<\/p>\n Those figures have been backed by independent modelling from health economists at the University of Melbourne, who said the impact on hospitals would likely be small.<\/a><\/p>\n However, NSW Health Minister Ryan Park said his health department’s modelling showed the proposed changes would have a much more significant impact on the public health system.<\/p>\n The upper end of the modelling estimates that in NSW alone, 80,000 residents aged 65 and over may either cancel or downgrade their private health insurance as a result.<\/p>\n It also estimates that public hospitals in NSW could pick up more than 23,000 additional surgeries a year.<\/p>\n “The Commonwealth’s proposed changes to private health insurance rebates will place additional pressure onto NSW’s public hospitals at a time when health services are already experiencing significant demand,” Mr Park said ahead of the meeting.<\/p>\n Ryan Park says his department’s modelling shows the proposed changes would place a much greater burden on public health systems. (ABC News: Billy Cooper)<\/p>\n Victorian Health Minister Ingrid Stitt also raised concerns, saying “any change that would leave older Victorians worse off” and put additional pressure on the states’s public hospitals was “unacceptable”, while Queensland’s Tim Nicholls said he did not believe the Commonwealth understood the impact of the changes.<\/p>\n “This is, I think, robbing Peter to pay Paul, and Paul hasn’t been paid yet,” he told the ABC.<\/p>\n Tim Nicholls says the Commonwealth plan should be ditched. (ABC News: Lucas Hill)<\/p>\n “If we see more people dropping out of private health insurance, then we’ll see more people turning up in our public health institutions, including our public hospitals.”<\/p>\n The issue has become increasingly political, with Shadow Health Minister Anne Ruston vowing the Coalition would block the legislation in the Senate because it was “nothing more than a cost shift onto older Australians to the public hospital system.”<\/p>\n Aged care crisis worsens nationwide<\/a><\/p>\n The number of aged care patients stuck in hospitals has jumped by 35 per cent in less than a year, fuelling fresh demands for the federal government to stem the crisis.<\/p>\n That means the federal government will need the support of the Greens to get the legislation through parliament, with the party yet to land on a formal position.<\/p>\n There is also a Senate inquiry into the issue, which is due to report its findings in October.<\/p>\n 3,700 aged care patients stranded in public hospitals<\/p>\n The health ministers also mobilised to launch another coordinated attack against the Commonwealth over the number of stranded aged care patients.<\/p>\n New figures collated by the states and territories reveal more than 3,700 aged care patients are now languishing in public hospitals across the country.<\/p>\n That is compared to about 2,500 last September, an increase of about 50 per cent in 12 months.<\/a><\/p>\n Those patients have been medically cleared for discharge but remain in hospital because there is nowhere suitable for them to go.<\/p>\n “I think it is the singular biggest issue that the South Australian health system faces today,” South Australian Health Minister Blair Boyer told the ABC.<\/p>\n Blair Boyer says SA’s biggest issue is aged care patients being stranded in public hospitals. (ABC News: Daniel Taylor)<\/p>\n “They are beds that we don’t have available to us today for people who might be presenting at an emergency department or arriving by ambulance, in some cases for elective surgery that is planned.”<\/p>\n While states run public hospitals, the Commonwealth funds and regulates aged care services.<\/p>\n Tensions flared in the lead-up to the latest public hospital funding agreement<\/a> cinched in January, with state governments of different political stripes abandoning party allegiances to unite on the issue<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Commonwealth is responsible for funding and regulating aged care services. (ABC News: Jake Grant)<\/p>\n As well as occupying beds and placing increased pressure on hospitals, long stays in hospitals also strip elderly patients of independence and put them at a greater risk of illness and infection.<\/p>\n Tim Nicholls this week revealed a patient had been stranded in a Queensland public hospital for more than 1,000 days<\/a>, with more than a dozen other patients stranded for more than 700 days.<\/p>\n He said long-stay patients accounted for more than 11 per cent of the state’s acute hospital capacity.<\/p>\n “This is an enormous issue for all states,” he said.<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/4e69d6fff5db330af91c417a8059819e.jpeg\")
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