Mark Unvailed

Mark Vaile has defended his government’s investment in health, qualifying that health is ‘predominantly’ a states’ issue. (Port Macquarie News May 26 2007)

This was just days after the federal budget allocation for health funding, a federal issue, came in well short of projected growth figures for purely maintaining the system.

Vaile went on to boast his government was on top of the system with the introduction of something he calls e-health. Given the pathetic internet connectivity in this country we might all die waiting for our computers to heal us.

But the real question should be; just how much control do the Feds have over health?

The government have been furiously denying the bundling of Health Services Australia into Medibank, ahead of the planned asset sale of the publicly owned health insurer. This is undeniably a federal responsibility, and one they are trying to unload.

He has dodged comment on the constant media advertising of changes to health insurance, tailed with ‘authorised by the Australian Government, Canberra’.

The latest indication of just how much the Feds are involved in health, the Deputy Prime Minister’s latest boast (Port Macquarie Express June 13 2007):

Paraphrasing Vaile’s quote …An overseas-trained doctor has been approved for Lake Cathie.

The announcement follows a recent meeting arranged by myself between [Federal Health Minister] Tony Abbot and the local division of General Practice…

It is ingenuous of Mark Vaile to slate full  responsibility to the states when there are clearly so many areas his government either has control or attempts to manipulate state responsibilities.

One of those manipulations is simply under-funding, then claiming the states screwed up. It just doesn’t wash!