Sharon Bird (Cunningham, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Vocational Education) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the minister for recognising the convention; it is very good of him to do so. I want briefly to ask you a question about the Independent Hospital Pricing Authority and particularly what commitment the government can give that it is continuing, despite the fact of its changes in the budget, to progress activity based funding and the efficient price for hospital activity and to seek a guarantee in commitment, because that was a very significant and important part of health and hospitals reform in gaining efficiencies in public hospitals. But I particularly want to turn to the government's decision to introduce a GP tax—I know the minister will take some contention with that, but I will call it a GP tax—on GP visits. Can you explain why, if the measure is about making Medicare sustainable, not all of the money the government is raising from this revenue measure taxing sick and poor Australians is going back directly into Medicare benefits services?

I also ask if the minister can confirm evidence that was provided by officials from his department during Senate estimates that no modelling has been done on the effect this tax will have on emergency departments and that no consideration was given to the effect it will have on patients with a chronic disease, many of whom already have difficulties seeing their GP because of high out-of-pocket costs. Can the minister confirm that the GP tax applies to pensioners, that it applies to Australians with a disability, that it also applies to children, that it applies to people with chronic disease and that it applies to residents of aged-care facilities? I specifically refer to comments by the President of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners that the GP tax could force GPs to retire:

Given 41 per cent of GPs in urban areas are over 55 anyway, these guys are probably more like 60-plus, and so they, I think that if you squeeze them. . . or require them to go through a lot of change in order for them to be able to continue to provide a service then they’ll just choose retirement.

Has the minister factored retirements into his policy?

I also ask whether the minister in fact consulted with the College of General Practitioners, with the Australian Medical Association, with the Consumer Health Forum, with the Australian Healthcare & Hospitals Association or with the Public Health Association of Australia before taking the decision to introduce the GP tax. I also want to ask some questions about the changes to diagnostic imaging and ask the minister to confirm the changes to indexation and the plans to introduce taxes on GP visits, diagnostic imaging and pathology services out of hospital, which could see upfront out-of-pocket costs of more than $800 for a cancer staging CT scan; that a PET scan for diseases like epilepsy, heart disease, detecting and diagnosing cancer and Alzheimer's disease will cost up to $1,000; and that an MRI scan would cost up to $500 out of pocket up front that people will have to pay. I ask the minister to confirm that these same out-of-pocket costs will apply to people who are currently bulk-billed? And does the minister agree that these costs will be prohibitive to many of the people who are bulk-billed at present? Can the minister advise whether the government has given any consideration to how many patients will avoid diagnostic imaging because they simply cannot afford it because of this government's changes?

I also ask the minister to confirm if he can guarantee that the current level of bulk-billing in Australia will continue under the changes he proposes in imposing a GP tax? And can the minister confirm whether medical GPs, as they have said to me, may end up having to cross-subsidise within their medical practices? They may use those patients who they do already charge a GP fee to to cross-subsidise and in fact increase the fees that they are currently charging those patients?

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