The Rudd Government has bowed to pressure from the Greens and Independent Senator Nick Xenophon and slashed the proposed income thresholds for the Medicare surcharge to $75,000 for singles, although Health Minister Nicola Roxon wants to leave the proposed new threshold for couples unchanged at $150,000.

The federal Health Minister’s remarks indicate the Rudd Government is thinking of using financial disincentives to drive doctors to relinquish their monopoly on procedures which can be done safely by other professionals, such as delivering babies, issuing repeat prescriptions and wound management.

A study coming out Tuesday from scholars at Columbia, Harvard, Purdue and Michigan projects that 20 million Americans who have employment-based health insurance would lose it under the McCain plan. For starters, the McCain plan would treat employer-paid health benefits as income that employees would have to pay taxes on.

Research by Catholic Health Australia estimates the greenhouse footprint of each of the nation’s 83,000 hospital beds is about 28 tonnes a year - double the emissions from an average household. When combined with the emissions from aged care services, the health sector accounts for about five million tonnes of CO2 a year.

The prematurely born baby, weighing only 600 grams at birth, spent at least five hours inside one of the Western Galilee Hospital’s refrigerated storage units, before her parents, who had taken her to be buried, began noticing some movement.

The Coalition will vote against a number of budget measures when they go before the Senate later this year. The Government will then need the votes of five Greens senators, Independent Senator Nick Xenophon and Family First Senator Steve Fielding to pass its legislation.