Jill Hall (Shortland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Private Health Insurance Amendment Bill (No. 2) 2014. This bill transfers the function of the Private Health Insurance Ombudsman to the office of the Commonwealth Ombudsman. The Commonwealth Ombudsman will automatically hold the position of Private Health Insurance Ombudsman, with the office also being transferred as a 'path to smaller government' commitment. The Private Health Insurance Ombudsman will be transferred, as I have said. With this transfer, some of the powers will be changed or removed. To be honest, I do have some concerns. This government's record when it comes to accountability and transparency is very, very poor. At present, the subject of a complaint may request additional time to report to the Private Health Insurance Ombudsman. This ability will not be transferred—basically because it is not consistent with the role of the Commonwealth Ombudsman. The minister will no longer be able to intervene if the Private Health Insurance Ombudsman decides not to investigate a complaint. Once again, that has been omitted. The provision for the minister to request the Private Health Insurance Ombudsman to undertake an investigation is also omitted. These are all things that we on this side of the House are quite concerned about. Unfortunately, as I have already mentioned, this government has a very poor record when it comes to health and a very poor record when it comes to openness, transparency and accountability.

Second to the government's assault on Medicare and decision to increase the price of pharmaceuticals, the next biggest complaint that I receive in my office is in relation to private health insurance—be it gap payments or a complaint relating to a particular private insurance provider. I see this as a diminution of what is currently available. It shows that the government really does not care about accountability. The Private Health Insurance Ombudsman exists to protect the interests of private health insurance consumers. It is about offering protection to Australians. It assists health fund members to resolve disputes—and, as I said, quite a number of disputes occur. It identifies underlying problems in the practice of private health funds. It provides advice to the government about issues affecting Australian consumers in relation to private health insurance. It provides advice and recommendations to the government and industry. This will all be a lot more difficult under the changes.

One thing members on this side of the House and the Australian people know is that you cannot trust the Abbott government when it comes to health. It is not only the opposition that knows this; it is the Australian people. I put on record that my office is constantly contacted by constituents complaining about the Abbott government's approach to health—be it private health insurance or Medicare. Before the last election the Abbott government said that there would be no cuts to health. Basically, this is a cost saving measure; it is all about saving money. Since the election the government has waged war on Australians and on our health system with one cut after another.

I will give the House a flavour of some of the cuts. More than $57 billion has been cut from Australia's public hospitals. There has been a cut of $197 million from flexible funds. This includes the Chronic Disease Prevention and Service Improvement Fund; the Communicable Diseases Prevention and Service Improvement Grants Fund; the Substance Misuse Prevention and Service Improvement Grants Fund; the Substance Misuse Service Delivery Grants Fund; the Health Social Surveys Fund; the Single Point of Contact for Health Information, Advice and Counselling Fund; the Practice Incentives for General Practices Fund and the Rural Health Outreach Fund. On rural health, as the shadow minister mentioned, very few people in rural and regional areas have private health insurance. It also includes the Health System Capacity Development Fund, the Health Surveillance Fund and the Health Protection Fund. These are all part of the $197 million in cuts to flexible funding. They have also cut $368 million from preventative health programs, which the states rely on to tackle obesity, smoking and alcohol abuse. Why isn't Mike Baird calling out for these funds to the reintroduced in New South Wales?

They have cut $264 million from priority health initiatives. That includes cuts to hospitals, to the Westmead Millennium Institute for Medical Research, to hospitals in Sydney and to Queensland cancer packages—and the list goes on and on. They have cut $50 million from the stroke package and $5.1 million from cancer care coordination, and of course we have had the increase in prices to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.

Unfortunately, the minister has not been prepared to stand up when it comes to the increase in private health insurance that took place. There has been a record increase to private health insurance premiums. The last increase was the second highest in private health insurance premiums in a decade. The 6.18 per cent rise approved by the new health minister, Minister Ley, is almost three times the inflation rate and will add about $200 to the cost of annual premiums for families' hospital cover and over $250 for those not eligible for the tax rebate—hardly a government committed to seeing private health insurance grow in Australia, hardly a government that is committed to making sure that private health insurance remains affordable and hardly a government that has the interests of Australians at heart.

Last year, the decision by the Abbott government was the highest increase to private health insurance, and that was a 6.2 per cent increase to private health insurance premiums. So on the one hand, we have a government that is moving away from the Private Health Insurance Ombudsman, where people can lodge a complaint—and quite often those complaints relate to price or increased insurance premiums—and, on the other hand, we have a government that is flagging through massive increases to private health insurance without blinking an eye. It may surprise you to learn that since the Abbott government came to power, it has exceeded any of the six annual increases approved under Labor when we were in government. That is very disturbing and does not show a commitment to making health care in Australia affordable.

Labor put in place a $1.4 million increase to the Private Health Insurance Ombudsman's capacity. We recognised that it was important that Australians could lodge a complaint and that those complaints would be dealt with. Now that is going to be a lot harder under what this government and this minister are doing to private health insurance in this country.

To be quite honest, the Abbott government is devoid of any health policy other than the destruction of Medicare and the introduction of its GP tax. The health minister confirmed that she was still committed to value signals in the health system—in other words, some sort of a co-payment tax on Australians. To be quite honest, Tony Abbott does not care how healthy Medicare is; he only cares about shoring up his position as Prime Minister and leader of the government. Initially, he announced a $7 GP tax, then a $20 cut, then a $5 GP tax and four years worth of cuts to the Medicare rebate. It is really hard to see how this is any sort of commitment to Medicare.

On at least 53 occasions, the Prime Minister supported the GP tax. He saw it as good and decent policy. He was committed to it on 2 September last year and said, 'It's good policy'; on 9 October, 'It's good policy'; and on 1 October, 'It's right and proper that we have more price signals in our health system.' Do not be under any misconception: Tony Abbott is the greatest threat Medicare has faced in 30 years. To be honest, the people of Australia know that. They value Medicare. The people whom I represent in this parliament, the voters of Shortland, have spoken very clearly about this government's attack on Medicare.

The Shortland electorate has the ninth highest number of pensioners, and they are literally frightened by the assault on Medicare. I have had pensioners come to see me since the increase in the price of pharmaceutical benefits saying that they now ration their medications. Instead of taking one tablet every day, they will take one tablet every second day. This is counterproductive to ensuring the good health of our nation. What it will lead to is a situation where we have poorer health outcomes. This is what the government do not understand. In their ideological hatred of universal health care and their pursuit to undermine Medicare, they have lost sight of the fact that it is not good health policy to go down that track.

I have serious concerns about the legislation we have before us. It is really quite disturbing that we have a Prime Minister that stands up and makes comments about the GP tax, saying that it is fair. Why isn't it fair enough to have a modest co-payment for Medicare? I do not have a problem with a co-payment on Medicare. All I can say is that under this government Medicare is under constant threat and this legislation will reduce the access to complaints that people have in Australia. This government is waging its assault on Medicare, undermining universal health care, and I will conclude by saying: you cannot trust the Abbott government when it comes to health. There is always an ulterior motive for every action it takes in relation to health, and we on this side of the House— (Time expired)

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