Joanne Ryan (Lalor, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise tonight, and I'll share with the member opposite that I, too, communicate regularly with the Minister for Health and Ageing. I send him thankyou notes and I smile at him when I walk past the corridors, because Werribee has an urgent care clinic. We also have an endometriosis and pelvic pain clinic, servicing the city of Wyndham, with a population of 360,000 people. I'll repeat that: 360,000 people. And, yes, most of them live 20 minutes distance from the urgent care clinic. I also want to thank the health minister for making it possible for 80 per cent of the people in my community to see a GP who bulk-bills, because we were a long way from that when we took government four years ago. I was meeting with constituents every day about the cost of health care.

Like the member opposite who just spoke, I've also met with many constituents about the rising costs of private health care, private health insurance and seeing specialists. So I'm really pleased to stand today to support this legislation, because, like the actions that we have taken to strengthen Medicare and to breathe life back into our universal health system in communities like mine, I'm pleased that we are also reaching into this space, which is incredibly important.

This bill is another example of the Albanese government delivering on its election promises. It will help the people in Lalor struggling with the rising cost of living by making health care more accessible and more affordable. At the last election, we promised voters that we would strengthen the healthcare system, helping Australians find the best value when they need a specialist or specialist medical advice and treatment. This bill delivers on that promise.

We also promised to stop private health insurers from price gouging their most vulnerable customers—people who need gold levels of hospital cover—by outlawing product phoenixing. The private healthcare system is subsidised by the government through the private health insurance rebate. This bill makes sure that that investment achieves value for money for consumers and taxpayers. This bill is yet another step towards strengthening and securing our world-class healthcare system.

And what about the local impact? This legislation will benefit people in my electorate in two clear ways. Firstly, it offers transparency by default. Secondly, it fulfils our election commitment to outlaw the practice of product phoenixing. When we talk about transparency by default, what does that mean? It means the bill improves transparency by giving people more information about specialist care providers and preventing dramatic increases in private healthcare premiums by stealth. These proposed changes will mean that individual medical practitioner fees and insurer out-of-pocket data will be published for common medical services. This information will be made available on the Medical Costs Finder website. The information will include names, locations, fees charged by location and the providers' utilisation of gap cover arrangements with insurers—where insurers pay a medical practitioner more if they agree to charge no or fixed out-of-pocket costs. It will include information about hospitals, including medical practitioners who provide services at the facility, and insurers that have gap cover or contracting arrangements with the facility. It will have information about insurers, including the proportion of policy-holders who experience different gap cover arrangements and the out-of-pocket costs under those arrangements. It is transparency by default. Automatically, people will be able to look this up.

Critically, medical practitioners will not need to upload their billing information; it will be taken from data entry already collected by the government, so there will be no extra burden on doctors. People in Lalor will be happy to know that this represents the first significant step towards addressing rising specialist fees and damaging out-of-pocket costs. There is more to be done, and people in Lalor should rest assured that this government is rolling up its sleeves and working hard to drive down their medical bills.

Now, I had an opportunity to speak recently to quite a few GPS as I went to visit GP clinics that had moved to bulk-billing. I've had a few conversations with our local doctors, and they've raised the process of referrals to specialists. I've had some conversations with some of them about what we're planning in this piece of legislation, and they're really pleased. They say it often ends up being a double visit, because they might meet with a patient and say, 'I'm going to refer you to a specialist.' They look up specialists, they do a referral and the patient leaves and goes home. The patient then does their own research, talks to a few neighbours, rings the hospital, goes through a lot of work and ends up back with their GP, saying: 'I actually can't afford this specialist. Do we have a different option?' This will mean that, sitting in the GP's rooms, the patient or the GP could look up the cost finder website and then make an informed judgement about what can be afforded, where this specialist operates and whether they operate in a public hospital as an option, as opposed to simply going automatically to the specialist rooms and then to a private hospital somewhere. So this costs finder website will make a huge difference in communities like mine, where people are making health choices based on cost. This is a government that wants to change that narrative back to a universal health system where people don't have to consider those things, and this is a step in that direction.

Interestingly, what we're doing here is building on what was the former government's commitment to creating this costs finder website. But, unfortunately, with an opt-in system, only 50 doctors registered for the use of this. Every specialist in the country will now be on this list. It will assist GPs to do referrals. It will assist patients to make assessments and judgements about which specialists they want to work with. I think it's incredibly important. That's just one thing that this legislation does.

This legislation also deals with product phoenixing. It's the second thing the bill fixes—the practice of private health insurers protecting their profits by price-gouging their most vulnerable clients. Here's how product phoenixing works. Right now, when health insurers want to change the premiums of an existing product, they must make an application to the minister for health. Private health insurers are creating new products that are identical or very similar to existing products and are dramatically increasing their premiums and bypassing the step to the minister. They can then cancel the original product, leaving the new, more expensive product as the only option for consumers. It's not seen as an adjustment to an existing one, so it doesn't require the minister's approval. It also means that they get around that obligation. They no longer have to seek approval from the minister. It's a simple practice. It's clever, but it has a devastating effect on those who need the most comprehensive cover. Those people, of course, are most likely to have a multiplicity of health issues and be dealing with medicines on a large scale. They are often the people who can least afford it.

According to CHOICE, the price of gold hospital cover has increased by approximately 58 per cent in the past five years. Cost-of-living pressures mean that many people have had to give up their gold health insurance. People forced to make sacrifices have dropped down to lower levels of cover. I know I've had conversations with constituents in my community about the fact that they've been to health insurance; they've gone to do the shop-around. They've got an existing policy. They're looking for something that's more tailored to their needs, and they're looking mostly for something that's cheaper. And the advice they're getting is: 'Don't give up what you've got. I know it's expensive, but the next product won't give you the same service.' Private health insurers have been increasing the cost of the highest levels of cover on a dwindling number of customers—typically, those who need the highest levels of medical cover. That means that the most vulnerable are being price-gouged to prop up the profits of private health insurers.

We promised at the last election that we would end this shameful practice, and that is exactly what this bill delivers. The proposed legislation makes sure that ministerial approval is required for a proposed new product and is required for the reduction of cover offered by an existing product. This legislation strengthens the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority's ability to make sure that people are not being ripped off, because this government cares about protecting the most vulnerable. This government is passionate about constantly improving the healthcare system, because good health is the foundation of thriving communities. Good health helps us be better parents, partners, friends, workers and community members.

This bill makes sure that people in my community who require specialist care can find options that provide the best value. It gives my constituents the opportunity to avoid paying high out-of-pocket costs. And, as one GP relayed to me, this bill will actually help GPs find specialists who better suit their needs and those of their patients. The bill also ensures that people who need gold levels of private health insurance cover are not price-gouged to preserve the profits of health insurers.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the cost of medical and hospital services is a key driver of health inflation for consumers. Higher out-of-pocket costs for specialist care and higher private health insurance premiums are a serious concern for Australians dealing with cost-of-living pressure. Fees can vary widely across specialists, even for the same procedure in the same part of Australia. This bill helps Australians make more informed decisions by helping consumers understand which providers offer the best value. The bill delivers on the government's promise to deliver transparency by default. On this side of the House, we understand that government plays a central role in making markets work for Australians. Unlike the ideologues who have captured the opposition, Labor understands that commonsense regulation makes markets more efficient and improves outcomes for consumers.

This government respects the expertise and dedication of Australia's healthcare providers. These changes, carefully designed to ensure there's no additional administrative burden on the people providing care, give the minister powers to delegate the approval of new or changed products or premiums; however, only the minister can reject applications. This means that beneficial changes will not be slowed down, and products that hurt Australians will receive the scrutiny they deserve.

As the Minister for Health and Ageing, the member for Hindmarsh, reminded us recently, the shadow Treasurer wants to see the transfer of health financing shifted from government to individuals. We know he doesn't mean ending private health care subsidies. We know he doesn't mean ensuring that private health care subsidies fund services that provide value for money. He means moving towards an American-style healthcare system. And it's not just those on this side of the House who understand that. The people in my community absolutely understand that, when those opposite get their hands on the levers of government, health care is one of the first places that they undo great Australian systems.

In 2021, when the shadow Treasurer was speaking about allowing young people to claim dependent status on their parents health care for longer, he argued that superannuation contributions were the real threat to health care in this country. Australians know the real risk to health care—it's the ideologues in the Liberal Party, and the member for Goldstein is just that. In this place he said:

…when you take money from young Australians and lock it up in super, they can't do other things, like afford private health insurance or homeownership.

We don't see health and housing as diametrically opposed. This is a government that takes action in both spaces. On this side of the House, we know that the only thing Australians need to secure their health care is a Medicare card and a healthy health system. Those opposite don't want a fair healthcare system. They want an American-style system where the only people that can access health care are those who can afford to pay for it.

We're going to hear a lot about Australian values from those opposite before the next election. I want people in Lalor and around the country to know it's a ruse. Now that the ideologues are in charge, they will try to trick you into a more expensive, less fair healthcare system. This bill represents, for all Australians, another delivered election promise by the Albanese government. It will help people in Lalor struggling with the rising cost of living by making health care more accessible and more affordable, and it will drive a healthier Lalor and healthier communities across the country.

See this speech in context