Nicola Roxon (Gellibrand, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Health and Ageing) Share this | Hansard source

The member for O’Connor is interjecting. I know he is particularly interested in people of a certain age needing these cataract procedures, which I understand. What I would like to explain to the member for O’Connor and all members in this House is that, even if our cataract changes are accepted, ophthalmologists will earn, not as their income but just from the Medicare rebates, over half a million dollars on average every year from Medicare, after our cataract changes are supported. But the opposition still want to protect those ophthalmologists, who are going to earn more than half a million dollars a year on average just from Medicare—not from co-payments, not from health insurance, not from private payments.

It is time, we believe, that taxpayers are able to enjoy the dividends that new medical technology and new treatments have brought to patient care in recent years. The opposition cannot expect taxpayers to keep supporting new items and new medicines if they are then blocked from enjoying the benefits and savings that flow from new technology. Nearly $2.5 billion of money that could be better used in health is currently being blocked by the Liberal Party in the Senate.

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