Michael Johnson (Ryan, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am delighted and honoured to speak in the House of Representatives chamber once again and delighted to speak on the Private Health Insurance Legislation Amendment Bill 2008 because it goes to the topic of private health insurance, which is very dear to my heart and is of great interest to the constituents of Ryan, which I have the great honour of representing in the federal parliament. The bill proposes to amend the Private Health Insurance Act 2007 and related legislation to remove the dual regulation of health related businesses conducted through health benefit funds by both the Private Health Insurance Administration Council and APRA, the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority, and to require private health insurers to be companies in order to apply for registration to that council.

The constituents of Ryan would be interested in the topic of private health insurance under the new government because a very, very significant percentage of people in the Ryan electorate take up private health insurance. I want to assure them that as their local member in the Australian parliament I am going to be very strongly batting for their interests. I will certainly be ensuring that their voices are heard through my contribution to debate on bills relevant to private health insurance because, such is the take-up of private health insurance in the Ryan electorate, it is imperative that their interests are strongly and enthusiastically represented. For the benefit of the House and the constituents of Ryan, who will be very interested in these figures, I want to inform the House that of the 94,000 people on the electoral roll in the Ryan electorate, 65,384 subscribe to private health insurance. That represents some 72 per cent of the Ryan electorate. They will have a very deep interest in how the new Rudd Labor government intends to go forward with private health insurance issues.

I say to members of the government and the new Prime Minister: please do not forget that people throughout the country who take up private health insurance do so for very significant reasons. They do so because they value their health tremendously and because they clearly want to make a contribution in a macro sense to the overall health of our country because they in a way are not a burden on the public health system. This is a very significant point that those on this side of the parliament certainly treasure and appreciate very much.

The Rudd Labor government would appear to have a philosophical problem with this idea. I certainly questioned the Rudd government’s commitment to private health insurance because of the recent history, as expressed in the budget, which has been very disappointing. I have had remarkable feedback from my electorate about their intense disappointment and their sense of having been let down. I suspect many people throughout the country who might have cast their vote for the Labor government would have private health insurance and they would be deeply disappointed.

One of the fundamental pillars of the party that I am a member of—the Liberal Party—is our deep faith in the freedom of individuals to choose. An aspect of that, in this context, is their choice either to subscribe to private health insurance or not to. We on this side of the chamber cannot see how that issue causes philosophical problems or consternation for the Labor government. It is a very simple proposition: people ought to have the right to choose how they go about their daily life; whether they do not want to send their kids to private schools or to public schools; whether or not they want to take out private health insurance—and they should not be punished for doing so.

I believe that if individuals and families are in a position to choose private health insurance then good on them. In a way, they are making a contribution to the overall health structure of this country and the overall health profile of our nation. Quite simply, they are easing the pressure on our public hospital system, giving those who may not be in a financial position to do so an opportunity to be at the front of the queue for public hospital care. Indeed, it is a very long queue in the state I come from, Queensland. I know that any of my fellow Queenslanders who might be listening to this debate would be all too aware of the very long queue in Queensland. Those who cannot afford private health insurance will be standing in that very long queue or, if they are very ill, they are probably sitting at home waiting desperately for a phone call that will tell them they are able to go into one of the various hospitals in Brisbane to get the care that they desperately need from the tremendously professional health providers and health experts.

I say to the new minister at the table: if I recollect accurately the member for Gorton and I came into the parliament at the same time in 2001. It is remarkable how times have moved for us both. I came in as a member of the government of the day and the member for Gorton came into a party that was in opposition. Just touching on the fact that the Australian people voted for a new government in November last year, as I said in a presentation to the parliament just recently, I have a great respect for the democratic process and I respect the judgement of the Australian people. They decided that there should be a new government, a new Prime Minister and new members of the executive. While of course I regret very much their decision, overall they are putting their faith in the new government.

Many of those people who would have voted for a Labor government, I suspect, would be subscribers to private health insurance. In my case, as the member for Ryan, I want to take this opportunity to thank the people of Ryan who re-endorsed me as their local representative. I certainly know that Australians in Brisbane and across the country that may have voted for the new government would have taken out health insurance and, I suspect, they will be quite troubled that this government seems to be embarking on a course of action and a direction that is inimical to the interests of their health management. I want to make it very clear to the people I represent that certainly they will not be forgotten. I suspect that many working families of Australia and of Ryan that the Prime Minister and the government are very fond of claiming as their own would be tremendously disappointed that the government’s attitude towards private health insurance is as it is.

The Labor Party have stated in the past that they would keep the Medicare levy surcharge, yet we all know now in light of the budget that the threshold was lifted for so many Australians. I think that is intensely disappointing. Ryan is a very young electorate and many younger professional people who would have payment of their insurance premiums at the top of their list of priorities will, in effect, be forced to put private health insurance premiums at a lower priority without federal support.

For completeness of information for the people of Ryan who might be listening to this debate, people earning over $50,000 had to either pay an additional one per cent Medicare levy surcharge or take out private health insurance. If they took out their private health insurance, the government would give them an average of 32 per cent rebate to make private health insurance more affordable. Unfortunately, the thresholds for paying the Medicare surcharge have now been altered. The Rudd government is raising the Medicare levy surcharge thresholds for singles from $50,000 to $100,000, and for families from $100,000 to $150,000. As I keep revisiting this point and restating it, most regrettably this policy will have a dramatic impact upon the working families of Ryan and many younger professional people as well will be detrimentally affected.

I note in today’s Courier Mail a story about the state government in Queensland about to deliver the first Bligh budget. The story goes to funding in the Queensland health sector. It is quite interesting that the new Treasurer in Queensland will be delivering the first Bligh budget and that they are going to focus very significantly on health. That is good: focus on and invest in health; it is about time. You have only been in government in Queensland for nearly 20 years—two decades of a Labor government and they are going to increase investment in the health system in Queensland with some 2,000 doctors and nurses and allied professionals. What have you been doing for two decades?

Nobody from Queensland will need to be reminded of the name, Dr Patel. For those Australians who might be listening from interstate, the famous Dr Patel fell through the net in Queensland and destroyed many lives and families in Queensland with his incompetent medical skills. What that reflects is the shocking way in which the Queensland health system was able to admit him to practise in Queensland.

I have a brother and sister who are doctors, and I take this opportunity to compliment them. My brother is one of this country’s finest young neurosurgeons, and my sister has recently graduated in medicine. My brother quite often reflects with me on the experiences that he has in his fine work. Being a neurosurgeon, there is not much that Queensland Health can do to him. He is one of those rare species of professionals that Australia and indeed Queensland are so desperate to have. There is not much they can do to him given the rarity of his skills and the professionalism he exhibits. The point I am making is that I feel for the patients in the Queensland health system because of the incompetent management of the Queensland government and the terrible stewardship of Queensland Health by the Australian Labor Party, who have run Queensland for almost two decades. I make this observation to the people of Queensland: surely enough is enough. If you have been on a waiting list for months and perhaps even years, surely enough is enough and it is time to send a very powerful message to Labor in Queensland.

In the context of private health insurance, the point I want to make is this: those who are now going to seriously reconsider their financial capacity to take out private health insurance are going to be added to the pool of people that will depend on the public health system. We are about to confront a terrible situation in this country, and particularly in Queensland.

With 10 million Australians signed up to private health insurance, the other consequence of the Rudd government’s budget and the increase in the threshold is that those who do stay in the private health regime are almost certainly going to be facing increased health insurance premiums. They are going to then be another group of people who will exit from private health insurance. The damage to the whole concept and regime of private health insurance in Australia is going to be exacerbated.

I want to briefly compare some of the seats in Brisbane in terms of the percentage of people covered by private health insurance including hospital cover. I say to the members of those electorates to be aware of these figures for 2005, which come from the Parliamentary Library. In the seat of Brisbane, an adjacent seat to Ryan, some 47 per cent of the constituents had taken out private health insurance including hospital cover. In the seat of the government speaker preceding me, the member for Dawson, 45.3 per cent of constituents were subscribers to private health insurance including hospital cover. I mention these seats because they are seats adjacent to my seat of Ryan and there is always a capacity for redistribution. Some of the constituents of either Moreton or Brisbane or Blair could well come into my electorate and vice versa, so these figures are of interest. In the seat of Moreton, 45 per cent of those constituents had private health insurance including hospital cover. These figures are not insignificant. I wonder what the figures are for the member for Gorton’s seat. I will see if I can find those while I am on my feet. The seat of Gorton is a Labor seat held by the Minister for Employment Participation, who is at the table. I congratulate him on his appointment to the ministry—and I am sure he does his best. One-quarter of his electorate subscribed to health insurance including hospital cover. I wonder how many of that 25 per cent will exit the private health insurance regime. Those figures are from 2005. I suspect that that one-quarter of that electorate would not exactly hold the new government in the highest esteem as they reconsider their position.

In conclusion, this bill is really a technical bill. It goes to the regulation of private health insurance in the context of registration for the Private Health Insurance Administration Council. What is of deep interest to me is the theme of private health insurance that is encapsulated in the bill. I reassure the people of Ryan that I represent that I will continue to speak very strongly on their behalf because I know that private health insurance is of deep and abiding interest to them. I thank them for taking out private health insurance because in a sense they are also making a contribution to the wider and larger picture of giving Australians who might not be in such a strong financial position themselves—(Time expired)

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