Stirling Griff (SA, Nick Xenophon Team) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to Senator Nash, representing the Minister for Health and Aged Care. The government will soon receive the second report from the Medicare Benefits Schedule Review Taskforce, outlining its recommendations on which of the 5,700 items of the $21 billion MBS—including the 12 different items relating to chemotherapy procedures—should stay or be axed. Like any surgical procedure, each of these 12 MBS items is linked to a rebate item for the associated in hospital care through which private health insurers pay the bed and nursing costs incurred by patients, mostly at no gap rates. Is the minister aware that axing any one of these items, and thus breaking the link to the rebate item for insurers, will leave cancer patients thousands of dollars out of pocket for in hospital costs, risking delays in time sensitive treatment. If so, will the minister commit to not axing any of these 12 crucial items from the MBS?