Luke Hartsuyker (Cowper, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

The Health Legislation Amendment (Private Health Insurance) Bill 2006 deals with a subject that strikes a chord with all Australians: health. As the nation’s population ages the importance of health services only grows. All Australians have a stake in the country’s health services. This government recognises the right of all Australians, young and old, to access quality health services, no matter where they live or whatever their financial situation. Furthermore, the government has taken steps to see that Australians have every opportunity to choose private health cover. In fact, this government has encouraged it with several measures, which I will outline in a moment.

Today I wish to highlight two reasons why the government is making private health insurance available to all Australians. Firstly, it is about choice. Australians should be able to decide for themselves whether they have private health insurance cover or whether they do not. Secondly, it is about working cooperatively with the public health system. The Howard government has eased the pressure on the public system without hurting the private system, encouraging more people to take out private health insurance, thus making for a stronger total health system—a strong public system as well as a strong private system.

It is the government’s view that the private health sector makes a vital contribution to the national level of health services. I wish the same could be said for Labor, but the figures show otherwise. When the Howard government took office a decade ago, the number of Australians with private health insurance cover was less than 34 per cent of the population. Today, that figure has jumped to over 43 per cent. That is in the order of nine million Australians making their own decision to access private health insurance. When Labor came to power in 1983, 65 per cent of Australians had private health cover. Over their 13 years of government that figure almost halved to less than 34 per cent. In a moment, I will return to Labor’s poor record on health and why it opposes improvements to the system.

In my electorate of Cowper, however, there is one private hospital and one private day care surgery—the Baringa Private Hospital and the Coffs Harbour Day Surgery Centre. Despite Cowper being a low-income electorate, those two facilities are very strongly patronised. It is indicative of the decisions being made by Australians around the country to use the services of the private health sector. We have a strong public health sector but, balancing that, and to take the pressure off that, we also have a strong private health sector.

One key indicator of the effectiveness of the private health insurance system is the usage of private hospitals in Australia: 56 per cent of surgery in Australia is performed by private hospitals. They admit a quarter of a million patients a year. The private system has 24,642 beds in 291 hospitals. Private hospitals account for 40 per cent of all hospital admitted patients with just 32 per cent of all hospital beds. Today, private health insurance membership, as I said, is over 43 per cent. That is a substantial proportion of the Australian population, taking a substantial load off the public sector.

The government has taken several recent measures to make private health insurance more attractive. Firstly, the private health insurance rebate was introduced in 1999. The 30 per cent rebate reduces the cost of private health insurance cover to the consumer. Since 1 April 2005 those with private health insurance who are aged between 65 and 69 have been able to claim a rebate of 35 per cent, and those who are aged 70 and over have been able to claim a rebate of 40 per cent. And what was Labor’s response to these increased rebates? Predictably, Labor’s response was to oppose this move. They labelled the move ‘a bad thing’ for our economy. They labelled it ‘unfair’. They labelled the increase in the private health insurance rebate to older Australians ‘shameful’. Had Labor remained in power, we would not be using the word ‘shameful’ to describe the private health insurance system and the private health system; I think we would probably be using the word ‘terminal’.

Labor ignores the figures when it claims that private health cover is out of the reach of average Australians. Over a million of these average Australians, on incomes of $20,000 a year or less, have private health insurance cover. And the private health insurance rebate is a major element in making that insurance cover affordable. The private health insurance rebate saves a typical family in the order of $800 a year—a benefit they would say they greatly appreciate, I am sure, were you to ask any family. Secondly, in July 2000 the government revolutionised private health insurance by introducing Lifetime Health Cover. It provides incentives for all Australians to take out private health insurance cover and stick with it over the long term. It helps to slow premium increases and it helps to stop the ‘hit and run’ syndrome where people join a private health insurance scheme only to leave after a particular ailment has been dealt with. I think Lifetime Health Cover is great news for the private health insurance system and great news for the wider health sector.

What would Labor have offered in its place? One proposal Labor put forward was the well-known Medicare Gold. I do not know whether the members opposite still remember Medicare Gold. I am sure they would prefer to forget Medicare Gold. It was going to bridge the divide between the private and the public hospital systems. It was going to put an end to hospital waiting lists, the then Leader of the Opposition, Mr Latham, espoused at the time. An opposition that was opposed to expanding the health insurance rebate for older Australians actually proposed this scheme of Medicare Gold, which would have provided free hospital care for all Australians over the age of 75. There seemed to be an incredible conflict there. On the one hand, they opposed the increase in the private health insurance rebate for older Australians but, on the other hand, they said they were going to have free health care for all Australians over 75 and no waiting lists. They said they were going to miraculously eliminate waiting lists. If you were over 75, you would just rock up at the door of the hospital and in you would go, straight through the door, and be treated immediately. It was clearly unsustainable; it was clearly underfunded; it was clearly a Labor pipedream. It was an absolute pipedream.

The system of Medicare Gold was quickly discredited. It was discredited by those on this side of the House, it was discredited by the overwhelming weight of health professionals and it was even discredited by those on the other side of politics. It was described by Michael Costello, the former Chief of Staff to the Leader of the Opposition, as a ‘strategic disaster’. It was described by former President of the Australian Labor Party and former minister in the Hawke government Barry Jones as a ‘turkey’. But it was apparently the biggest idea Labor had had on health in a decade, and it was quite clearly one of the worst. Incredibly, Labor will not put the final nail in the coffin of Medicare Gold. That uncosted, underfunded, unsustainable and undeliverable policy is still floating out there in Labor rhetoric land.

The 2004 election carrot was rejected by the people of Australia. They realised that the story that Labor was putting in relation to Medicare Gold was not going to be delivered. They could see that there was no proof of how access could be guaranteed to health services or how immediate service could be guaranteed for the over 75s, particularly where procedures required were complicated or difficult. It created the rather incredible situation where a person with a particular condition and of a particular age would be placed in a queue behind someone of an older age, just because that person had achieved the age of 75. We had a situation where Labor was espousing a policy that access to services was defined not by clinical need but by age.

The Minister for Health and Ageing, Mr Abbott, has called on Labor to renounce Medicare Gold for the farce that it is—to kill it stone dead—so that the people of Australia can get some clear direction on where Labor is coming from on health. We want to kill off that turkey. We want to chop off its head and make sure it does not appear again. Labor does not seem to speak much of Medicare Gold. I would like the opposition once and for all, in no uncertain terms, to state its position in this House that Medicare Gold is dead—that it is off the agenda. While we wait for Labor to construct a cohesive health strategy, the government will continue delivering affordable, workable health outcomes for every Australian—that is, not a pipedream but affordable and workable outcomes. The government introduced the no-gap and known-gap scheme, which provides health insurance members with a number of benefits. It provides cover for the difference between doctors’ fees and the combined health insurance and Medicare benefits payable for in-hospital medical services or up-front disclosure of any amount that would not be recovered from the policy.

The Health Legislation Amendment (Private Health Insurance) Bill 2006 proposes changes to two current health acts. It puts forward an amendment to the National Health Act 1953 to increase the powers of the Private Health Insurance Ombudsman. Its proposes a change to the Private Health Insurance Incentives Act 1998 to give Medicare Australia more time to provide the Australian Taxation Office with information regarding private health insurance rebates. The government considers this bill an important step because it will enable the Private Health Insurance Ombudsman to more effectively represent consumers in disputes. Schedule 1 of the bill before the House gives the Private Health Insurance Ombudsman greater powers to deal with complaints and to conduct investigations, whether they be of the ombudsman’s own initiative or by ministerial request. Schedule 2 responds to an Australian National Audit Office review on the administration of the rebate process and will lead to a simplified system of data exchange between the Australian Taxation Office and Medicare.

Australians with private health insurance use the services of the Private Health Insurance Ombudsman in times of dispute with their fund because of the ombudsman’s independence. The same is true of the private health insurance industry, private hospitals or medical practitioners when they have a complaint. Under the current system, the office of the Private Health Insurance Ombudsman is somewhat limited in the way they can deal with some disputes. It is important to ensure consumers are not exposed to risk during negotiations or disputes with health funds or health service providers, and the government feels that the involvement of the Private Health Insurance Ombudsman in these negotiations is in the best interests of all parties and creates a more transparent system.

The position of Private Health Insurance Ombudsman was first created in 1995. Over the ensuing decade the Private Health Insurance Ombudsman has been the referee in disputes between parties in the private health insurance industry. It is the government’s view that the powers of the Private Health Insurance Ombudsman do not allow for effective mediation of complaints and contract disputes between private health care providers and private health funds. The bill is designed to empower the ombudsman to settle these disputes quickly and effectively. It also broadens the scope the ombudsman has for securing the necessary documentation needed to settle disputes, specifically on fund and health care provider contracts. The bill before the House today is important because it will enhance the operation of our health care system.

Philosophically, Labor have an absolute opposition to private health insurance cover. I would like to see them reverse that stance. I would like to see them come up with policies that enhance and support the government’s position on private health insurance as an important part of our health system, as a major buttress to a quality health system comprising both the private and the public sector. It is hard enough to get any services out of our states. When you look at the way the states administer their health systems, there is some concern amongst the public. This government has a view of supporting the public system through a strong private sector. This government has the view that policies such as Medicare Gold—the undeliverable, underfunded pipedream—should be abandoned by Labor. We would be looking for a clear statement to that effect.

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