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

I rise to speak on the Health Insurance Amendment (Diagnostic Imaging Accreditation) Bill 2007. The purpose of this bill is to amend the Health Insurance Act 1973 to establish a legislative framework that will enable the introduction of an accreditation scheme for practices providing diagnostic imaging services covered by the Radiology Quality and Outlays Memorandum of Understanding. The explanatory memorandum to this bill states:

There is currently no regulatory mechanism that helps to ensure all the elements involved in the delivery of diagnostic imaging services work together.

The explanatory memorandum goes on to say:

As such, there is no guarantee to patients that optimal radiology services are being provided.

This is an incredible omission by the Howard government. Medicare pays over $1.6 billion a year for radiology services. Over the last two years this cost has increased significantly compared with the previous years of 2004-2005. In 2004-05 the cost of Medicare radiology services went up by 11.5 per cent. In 2005-06 the cost went up by 8.5 per cent.

No amount of rhetoric will negate the failure of the Howard government to properly support Australia’s public hospital system. Neither the government’s GP policies and its support of private hospitals through private health insurance subsidies, nor its aged-care policies have taken pressure off public hospitals, emergency departments or the demand for public hospital beds. Madam Acting Deputy President, you will understand, therefore, my scepticism that the proposed measures to change the operation of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, the PBS, will deliver all the benefits claimed by the government.

An essential point to be made from the outset is that the PBS is an integral part of the universal health system. The PBS is not just a government cost centre that needs to be managed simply in cost-accounting terms. Access to appropriate medicine has huge health and economic benefits for the country and for individuals. Access to appropriate medicine not only saves and prolongs lives; it can greatly reduce the overall cost of illness to individuals and the economy. Australia has been well served over the past 50 years by our national government’s participation in ensuring the universal availability and affordability of medical practitioner prescribed medicines.