Australian Health Congress 2010

The federal budget, which should pass unopposed through the senate in short order, contains funding for the incentives offered to the states to sign up to the NHHN agreement. Although the reform agenda is contingent on further legislation being passed, this will enable the process of change to begin.

Hopefully the passage of the bills relating to retaining a portion of the GST, and the creation of the IPA and NSQSA will have an easier time of it than the introduction of Medicare to which the current reform is being compared.

No one would question the need for reform and the acceptance of the majority of recommendations in recent major reports has meant that most organisations in the health sector have been broadly supportive of proposed developments.

But we do need to know how the changes are going to take place and we need to make sure we don't lose sight of the bigger picture while concentrating on the details.

The Australian Health Congress is a unique forum for government, industry and advocacy groups to discuss the progress towards reform. As an independent and unaligned event, we provide an opportunity for all stakeholders to have a voice in the debate and to explore the inter-relationships between the different levels of care and across jurisdictional boundaries.