Commonwealth tips another $307m into state health

STATE health budgets will be topped up $307 million this year on advice from independent umpires to the Federal Government.

Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt said he would make an increased payment to the states and territories for public hospital activity in 2016-17, following the final reports by independent hospital pricing and funding agencies.

The latest payment is in addition to the $354 million paid to the states in June this year.

It means an additional $1.6 billion, or 9 per cent, in com- monwealth funding was provided to states and territories in 2016-17 when compared to 2015-16, bringing federal public hospital funding to $19 billion.

Mr Hunt said it was $6 billion more than when Labor was in government.

He said federal funding had increased by more than 50 per cent and over a billion dollars each year since the Coalition came into government.

Mr Hunt is attempting to strike a deal with the Victorian and Queensland Labor government over future hospital funding. The new deal would boost hospital funding nationwide by $30 billion to more than $128 billion by 2024-25.

Commonwealth funding for Victorian hospitals would rise from $24 billion in 2019-20 to more than $30 billion in 2024-25 — an increase of nearly 30 per cent.