Brian Mitchell (Lyons, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It gives me great pleasure to rise today to speak on the shadow minister's MPI on this government's atrocious failures in health care. As the member for a regional electorate, nowhere has it been more appalling than in regional health. The day before the election the Prime Minister promised that no Australian would pay more to see a GP under his Medicare freeze. This was a line. Australians are already paying more for GPs and out-of-pocket costs of health care are increasing. Indeed, in October last year the AMA recommended that fees rise to $78, which will leave patients $41 out of pocket. Perhaps members opposite can explain to us how we have an election, yet the AMA is recommending that fees go up. It does not align too well with what Prime Minister said. This year's increase to private health insurance premiums sees a $200 increase. Since 2013 they are up $900 a year. That is 23 per cent in five years. These are massive out-of-pocket costs that ordinary Australians simply cannot afford.

Australians pay more out of pocket for health care than people in many countries. The out-of-pocket cost increases are 4.5 times higher than government funding over the last year. According to the Productivity Commission they have gone up six per cent, compared to 1.3 per cent in government funding. On every measure this government is failing the health needs of Australians.

The Turnbull government is making health care less affordable for every Australian, with the Medicare freeze already forcing GPs to drop bulk-billing—an increased out-of-pocket cost. Indeed, bulk-billing in December dropped from 84.6 per cent nationally to 83.9 per cent. They are rabbiting on about the increases in bulk-billing, but the figures show they have dropped over the last quarter from 84.6 to 83.9. In Tasmania, it is even worse: from a low bulk-billing rate of 76.4 per cent, they have dropped to 74.5 per cent. In one quarter they have gone down 1.9 per cent. The only place in Australia that bulk-bills less than Tasmania is the ACT. It has the highest income in the country; Tasmania has the lowest. Tasmania should have the highest bulk-billing rate in the country given its comparatively low incomes, but it is 13 per cent lower than New South Wales, which is comparatively much richer.

Tasmanian Dr Graeme Alexander was reported in November saying patients avoid seeing a GP because of the cost. He said:

This problem is just going to get dramatically worse and very quickly.

The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners president, Bastian Seidel—a Tasmanian—says that the drop is concerning. He said:

You are going to end up in a public emergency department or you will be calling an ambulance out.

These are the real consequences of when you fail to properly fund Medicare, when you fail to properly fund the health system and when you fail to properly look after primary health. It shoves people over to the hospital system, which is already under stress. Bastian Seidel continued:

That is even worse because we know an ambulance call-out costs the taxpayer at least $800 and a presentation to a public hospital emergency department costs the taxpayer at least $200.

So for small savings in one area, you end up with a massive blowout in another area. It just points to failures all round by this government.

Their failure to properly fund our public hospitals has seen elective surgery waiting times blowout to the worst they have ever been. And Tasmania's dedicated elective surgery hospital, the Mersey, just to the north of my electorate, is currently on a one-year funding deal. It expires in July this year, and yet we have no indication from this government about the future of that funding deal. Patients are left in the lurch; they do not know what is going on. The Tasmanian Liberal government is tearing its hair out. It is trying to get a deal out of this government and it needs some answers about what is happening with the Mersey. Is it getting a one-year deal, a three-year deal, a five-year deal or a 10 year deal? Nobody knows, and yet the members opposite think that is just fine.

As for hospitals more generally, the Royal Hobart Hospital is 'exceeding capacity' says the state Tasmanian health minister, Michael Ferguson—and he is a Liberal. Ramping is endemic. Patients are being interviewed in corridors. (Time expired)

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