Ed Husic (Chifley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I think in this debate too context is important. I want to read some stats out to the House, if I may. Americans spend on average more than $12,000 per person on health care, almost twice as much as Australians. That gap alone cancels out about half the difference in income per person between the US and Australia, according to the World Bank. Nearly half of US adults find it difficult to afford health care, with uninsured individuals and those with lower incomes facing the most significant challenges. Seventy per cent of adults in low-income households in America report difficulty affording healthcare costs. Three in four uninsured adults under the age of 65 say they went without needed care because of the cost. That's an important stat I want to come back to. Medical expenses are the leading cause of personal bankruptcy in the United States. Job loss, often linked to healthcare related bankruptcy, is a close second. Finally, and most devastatingly, two out of five Americans are emotionally affected by medical debt more than other serious incidents or illnesses. This isn't an accident. That system has been set up and run in that way for ages.

Medicare was not an accident. It was a deliberate decision. It is, I dare say, an actual reflection of value in this country. Medicare reflects our value of fairness. Universality is about people in need who should get the support they require at that time of need, regardless of income, and we all chip in to make sure people get access to that health care.

I'd also make the point that it was a Labor government that introduced Medicare. Nearly every MP—well, I would say every Labor MP—in this House is enormously proud of that. But I must say it will go down for all of our days as a huge point of pride that this government has invested more in Medicare than any Labor government other than the one that set up Medicare in the first place. This is hugely important. I come back to the point I talked about earlier where you've got uninsured adults, say, in America who'll go without health care because they can't afford it. I'll tell you, Member for Fowler, in my community, in my part of Western Sydney, I never want to have one single person say that they will not go to a doctor because they can't afford it or say that they just cannot face the fact of having gap fees, which was a genuine threat three years ago. There was a threat that gap fees would be introduced in areas where they had bulk-billing.

I might just say to the House that Mount Druitt, 2770, has the highest MBS bulk-billing rate in the country, Blacktown has the fifth-highest and, I think you'd be proud, Member for Fowler, Fairfield is at No. 3. This is not a lottery; it is a reflection that, in areas where the socioeconomics demand it, we'll provide for that. It is very important. There were deliberate decisions taken by Liberal governments. When they couldn't pull Medicare apart, they choked it. They underspent. They underinvested in the MBS and hoped that it would wither away, that it would be replaced by gap fees and that there would be less requirement for government to spend. It was a deliberate decision.

I take on board the point that the member for Fowler made about workforce shortages. But that happens in many parts of Western Sydney. Some of it is also reflected by the fact that some doctors who get trained in our area go to the eastern part of the city, where they'll make more money. I reflected in the Federation Chamber today on the recent passing of Dr Teng-Kiong Kek. He worked for 40 years in Mount Druitt. He could have gone anywhere else, but he deliberately stayed in our part of Western Sydney because he wanted to provide that level of care. There are a lot of doctors like him in our part of the world and in the member for Fowler's part of the world.

The fact that $12 million has been saved on two million scripts in my part of the world because people can get their medicines cheaper and don't have to worry about costs is huge. The Medicare urgent care clinic that means people don't have to wait in EDs was a deliberate decision by our government. That's huge. The fact that we've invested huge amounts of hospital funding in the states was a deliberate decision as well. This is not a lottery. This is not chance. This is because you've got a Labor government that's dedicated to the proposition that our value of fairness must be reflected in our healthcare system, principally through Medicare, of which we are all enormously proud.

See this speech in context