Eric Hutchinson (Lyons, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you so much for the opportunity to contribute to the second reading debate on the Health Insurance Amendment (Safety Net) Bill 2015. I will respond to a number of the points that the member for Shortland raised. I did not sense in her contribution, though, any real vigour for the case that she was prosecuting. It probably goes to the point. I will specifically try and direct my comments to my electorate—which is an electorate that, in terms of statistical areas, is a remote and outer regional electorate—and the benefits that the changes that are being proposed in this legislation will bring to communities around my electorate, but, more broadly, to the state of Tasmania.

The point I should make, first of all, is that this is responding to two independent reviews, that it involved broad consultation with a range of stakeholders and the public on its impact on provider-changing behaviour. I note the member for Shortland's comment that health care should not be about efficiency. In my world, I think we need to have efficiencies. We should in every sector of the economy, including health care, look for where there are efficiencies to be gained. This is exactly what this piece of legislation does. Those on the other side make much about the notion of fairness. This legislation provides more access to more people. I will go a little further into exactly who those people are and the reason why I chose to speak on this legislation in respect of my own electorate.

It will also reduce the inflationary effect on charges that occur within the current arrangements, which are indeed complex and which have been a hodgepodge of additions and changes over a number of years, by introducing capping across the board of those services that reach the caps. The benefit of these changes is, indeed, simplification of three systems, essentially into one system. This will have benefits not only for providers, who find this a very complex situation to navigate, but particularly also for consumers, who find it a difficult system to navigate. This is not only for those who reach the threshold; the benefits of this legislation will ultimately be for all users of the Medicare Benefits Schedule through the health system.

If we go back to first principles though, of course, we do want—and I think that all of us in this place support this notion—a universal health system that is accessible to all but affordable, particularly affordable for those most vulnerable within our community. The independent reviews showed that the EMSN—the Extended Medicare Safety Net—was indeed structurally flawed, that there had been considerable leakage of government benefits towards providers' incomes rather than reduced costs for patients.

Like everything, I guess, in this whole business of government it is always about balancing the important services that our medical professionals—be they general practitioners, be they allied health providers or others—with the costs that are passed on to patients. The highlighted point here in the independent review was that the leakages were overweighting the benefits to the providers at a cost to the patients and consumers. It also highlighted that around 55 per cent of these benefits were going to the top 20 per cent of Australia's most socioeconomically advantaged, with the least advantaged 20 per cent receiving less than 3½ per cent. That is where I will drill down a little further as time allows to the circumstances that exist within my electorate of Lyons.

The question might be asked: who will benefit from the changes that are being made and the simplification that is being introduced? The new Medicare safety net will indeed be one that is more progressive. The thresholds for people without concession cards are reducing—

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