Glenn Sterle (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Wasn’t one of the main reasons that Medicare came into existence to ensure that all Australians—the well off, the less well off, the young and the old, Senator Brandis; Australians who live in cities and Australians who live in regional, rural and remote Australia—have access to high-quality health and hospital care regardless of their circumstances? Isn’t this why Australians are so committed to Medicare? It is because it is a fair system, not a fear system.

The government’s health policies are following the same pattern of unfairness that has been typical of much of its actions since it came into power 11 long years ago. If anything, its policies of fear and unfairness and its attacks on the lives of ordinary Australians have intensified, especially since the last election. It is about time that senators opposite realised we are seeing in this country a growing rejection of their tactics of fear.

If the Howard government were in any way sincere about its commitment to Medicare, it would ensure that low- and fixed-income people could continue to rely on having access to Australia’s public hospitals, particularly Australia’s world-class public teaching hospitals. Australia’s public teaching hospitals remain an enduring legacy of previous federal Labor governments. Now these same hospitals are becoming victims of Howard government neglect. The fact is the choice-of-doctor myth is a self-serving tactic of the private health funds and the private hospital sector to sell their services. In reality, choice of doctor is more a choice between a high-cost doctor and a low-cost doctor. It is not about choice between a good and a not so good doctor. The fact is that very few people have access to sufficient information on which to base an informed choice of doctor.

As my colleague Senator McLucas has already pointed out, Labor has serious concerns about some aspects of these bills that take away consumer protection by eating away at the existing legislation. The fact is that when a person becomes seriously ill and requires admission to hospital, they and their family are often in no state, nor do they necessarily have the time, to exercise choice of doctor. The fact is that, since the current government came into office, in many places in Australia there have been serious shortages of medical specialists. As a result, patients often have no other option but to accept the first available specialist. The fact is that these days the biggest challenge is to actually find a doctor who will see and treat you. If the government were really serious about giving patients informed choice of doctor, it would facilitate the availability of public information on individual doctor qualifications, experience and track record. I would like to see that.

Let us look at the facts about private health insurance since the Howard government introduced its private health insurance premium rebates. The government has been taken to the cleaners by the private health funds, the private hospital sector and private medical specialists. They have all creamed it. In fact, they have made a shirt load. What a cakewalk it has been for the private health insurance funds since the introduction of the premium rebate, when an avalanche of taxpayers’ money began to flow into the health funds’ money bags! Since 1999 the health funds have basically not had to do anything. They have simply jumped on the back of Australian taxpayers. The Australian government has done all their work.

Since the time before the introduction of the health insurance premium rebate for privately insured hospital patients, the private health insurance funds, in real dollar terms, have not put one extra dollar of their own money—not one dollar of their own—into the private health insurance system. At the same time, the funds have helped themselves to—wait for it—over $1.5 billion of taxpayers’ money to help fund their management expenses. For senators opposite I will repeat it: $1.5 billion. Surely one of the reasons the government decided to invest so much money into private health insurance, rather than Medicare, was to bring about a similar lift in private health fund contributions. Unfortunately, it did not happen. But do not worry: the well-off people in the community have been able to send a good part of their private hospital bills to the taxpayer to pick up.

Also, how can the private health insurance funds continue to justify their 10 per cent management expense ratio when they do nothing but collect taxpayers’ money and members’ contributions, send out cheques to private hospitals and medical practitioners and run expensive media campaigns? It is about time they stopped living the easy life and began to earn their keep. It is about time the Howard government stopped doing their bidding for them.

Since the introduction of the government’s private health insurance changes, the cost of private health insurance has increased by 46 per cent, way above the CPI increase. The result is that every year the cost of private health insurance is becoming less affordable for the average family. Families are on the same treadmill they were on prior to the rebate. Since the Howard government came into office 11 long years ago, federal outlays for private hospital services have increased from 10 per cent of Australians’ total expenditure on private hospital services to 34 per cent.

The Howard government has clearly taken the lazy view that all you have to do is throw money at the private sector and wondrous things will happen. What it has failed to recognise is that the private hospital sector has one main aim: to maximise its profitability.