Yvette D'Ath (Petrie, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in support of the Health Insurance Amendment (90 Day Pay Doctor Cheque Scheme) Bill 2008. I do so not as a person with experience as a health professional but as a mother, a parent and a person who understands the cost-of-living pressures facing many families in my electorate of Petrie. I understand that parents find it difficult at times to find the money for themselves or their children to see a general practitioner—and finding the money to see a specialist or a consultant physician is sometimes even more difficult. The government understands that working families need access to high-quality health care and is investing in a strong health system for the future. That means investing in the public health system, after 11 long years of neglect by the Howard government, whilst continuing to support a strong private system. This bill is an important part of that commitment.

The effect of this bill is to extend to specialists and consultant physicians the 90 Day Pay Doctor Cheque Scheme, which already applies to general practitioners. A ‘pay doctor via claimant cheque’, also known as a ‘pay doctor cheque’, is a cheque for the amount of the Medicare rebate that is made out to a medical practitioner who provides a service. It is used in situations where the patient is not bulk-billed and either cannot or need not pay the account in full at the time of the health service. This has significant benefit in areas of low-income households, including those of pensioners, increasing the choice that people can make in accessing the health care they need. In some cases people will be able to get access to private specialists or consultant physicians within a much shorter period than they may otherwise have through the public health system.

This bill not only benefits families and older Australians but also protects specialists and consultant physicians when there is a lengthy delay in a patient presenting a cheque to the practitioner or when a cheque is not presented to the practitioner at all, resulting in a bad debt for a medical service provided in good faith. The 90 Day Pay Doctor Cheque Scheme ensures that, if the doctor has not received and banked the cheque within 90 days of it being issued to the patient, Medicare Australia will cancel the cheque and forward the applicable Medicare rebate directly to the doctor via electronic funds transfer. Allowing specialists and consultant physicians access to this scheme will provide these practitioners with an assurance that they will receive some payment for services provided in good faith. By extending access to this scheme we are supporting improved up-front affordability for health services for Australian families.

My electorate has paid significantly for the Howard government’s neglect in the area of health. Our bulk-billing rates, which were six per cent above the national average in 1996, declined by 21 per cent over just 10 years to 65 per cent, or 11.6 per cent below the national average, by 2007. Health is an issue that people across my electorate are concerned about—from young adults to older Australians. Making access to specialists and consultant physicians more affordable through the 90 Day Pay Doctor Cheque Scheme is welcomed by my community.

This amendment is part of an incentives package to support the use of electronic Medicare claiming and is designed to encourage electronic claiming in support of the government’s move towards more claiming via electronic means. This will benefit patients, as they will not be required to visit a Medicare office to claim their rebate. Of course, it will be of particular benefit to rural and regional Australians. This amendment is part of the Rudd Labor government’s commitment in the budget to improving hospitals and health services.

I can tell the House that the people in my electorate support the injection of funds into the public hospital system and allied health. In particular, the people of Redcliffe Peninsula are supportive of the Rudd Labor government’s commitment to a GP superclinic. This clinic will complement the additional investment from the Queensland government into our local hospital through the new emergency department at Redcliffe Hospital. Labor’s $220 billion investment in GP superclinics will provide greater convenience for Australians by co-locating teams of health professionals, GPs and allied health services such as physiotherapists, psychologists and dietitians together under one roof. Labor’s GP superclinics will be an investment in taking pressure off public hospitals, providing infrastructure to attract doctors to areas that need them most—like Redcliffe, in the electorate of Petrie.

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