After last night Federal Budget the Rudd Government has promised $466 million in its Budget to get under way its long-running and controversial project to introduce individual electronic health records for Australians.
But it has backed away from plans to cover all Australians: the system announced last night is to be a voluntary “opt-in” one, with decisions on whether to participate or not to be left up to the individuals.
It’s not clear what this means for the Government’s Healthcare Identifiers Bill 2010, introduced earlier this year, which proposed to issue every Australian with a “personal identifier” for use in an all-encompassing e-health system.
The Government says it will promote the use of healthcare identifiers by setting up a legislative framework to support their use in health services delivery.
Last night’s Budget allocated $466.7 million over two years – $185.6 million in 2010-11 and $281 million in 2011-12 – to establish national components of the scheme.
The Government says those who choose to join the scheme will control what is stored on their electronic health records and will decide which health professionals can view or add to their files.
Australians who choose to participate can register online from 2012-13, according to Treasurer Wayne Swan.
The Government says implementation will initially focus on people who have most contact with the health and hospital system, including those with chronic and complex health conditions, older Australians, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and mothers and their newborn children.
