Sussan Ley (Farrer, Liberal Party, Minister for Health) Share this | Hansard source

Over 70 per cent of episodes of care to non-concessional patients are bulk-billed. What that tells us is that there is a cohort of people with the ability to pay a modest contribution to their medical services who are in fact paying nothing. Remember this: behind every bulk-billed consultation there is a government fee. There is a cost to government, and that payment to government is coming from a government increasingly constrained in our ability because of the national accounts left to us by Labor.

So, I say to the shadow minister: if you are comfortable with the level of bulk-billing for those who can afford to pay a modest contribution, then you should stand up and say that, because that is an unsustainability in Medicare that you as members of the Labor Party should not support. You are the party of means testing. You are the party that says that if people can afford to pay then they should. But you are now the party that is saying, 'It's okay; everyone can have a bulk-billed consultation.' When we say that Medicare is universal in coverage, that does not mean that it is free. But it does have built into it a strong equity argument, and that equity argument is an important one.

If we are to keep Medicare sustainable, equitable, simple to administer and universal in coverage, we need to understand that the cost of bulk-billing for those who can afford to pay is too high. Behind every one of those bulk-bill consultations lies a payment, and governments do not have money—

Opposition members interjecting—

Shadow minister, I did not interrupt everything you said. I know it is a tactic of yours at the dispatch box—

Ms King interjecting—

I said one thing—I said we had sat here and listened to you rack up debt—but I did not sit here and interrupt the way you have. I know that you are probably concerned because I might be about to reflect on your time as regional infrastructure minister. You are probably hoping that by presenting a wall of noise I will not get to talking about your time as regional infrastructure minister. Do you remember when the audit committee had a close look at the things you did and found that they were not quite right and that you used ministerial discretion in a way that it never should have been used in distributing funds to government projects and programs? You certainly did not do a very good job.

There is an important issue here. There are areas that the government and the opposition agree on—we do want to sustain Medicare, we have listened to the professions and we are committed to working with the professions. While, I admit, we paused the rebate, the opposition has determined that it will freeze the rebate, because it admits that it owns that policy. We are saying that we will pause it, we will consult, we will continue the discussions that we are having around the country, with one aim in mind—to make sure that the Medicare system, of which we are all so proud, is kept on a sustainable footing to protect the vulnerable and to make sure that those who cannot afford to go to the doctor are supported, as they should be, by sound government policy.

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