Ms Catherine King (Ballarat, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Health) Share this | Hansard source

In 1983, when Labor established Medicare, we were guided by a simple principle: that every Australian should have access to the best quality health care regardless of where they live and regardless of their capacity to pay. Based on the two budgets now delivered by the Abbott government, we now know, sadly, that this is not a principle supported by the other side. We in fact knew that from their history.

Given the absolute disaster that occurred with last year's health budget, I could not comprehend how this budget could do more damage. Last year's budget was a budget that was so disastrous for health care and healthcare reform that it led to its minister being voted the worst health minister in 40 years, and by year's end he was gone. Last year's budget ripped $57 billion out of public hospital funding. It gutted preventative health and adult dental programs. It hiked the price of essential medicines and, most notoriously of all, attempted to destroy Medicare by forcing all Australians, even pensioners and children, to pay a tax every time they went to see a GP.

Since that time, of course, we have had a $7 GP tax, a $5 GP tax and a $20 GP tax. Now, after being assured that finally the GP tax is dead, that promise is, sadly, about as believable as his original promise that in fact there would be no cuts to health and no new taxes. I can assure you that this budget makes it crystal clear that the GP tax is very much alive and, for many patients, even bigger than the original. Despite more promises that the Prime Minister would make no further changes to Medicare without the support of doctors, the budget makes a very big change that most certainly does not have the support of doctors, patients or anyone who cares about health. That is, of course, the four-year freeze on the indexation of the Medicare benefit schedule.

The free rips $1.3 billion out of general practice over the next four years. As TheMedical Journal of Australia revealed earlier this year, that amounts to additional out-of-pocket payments by non-concessional claimants in excess of $8. It means lower bulk billing, bigger gap payments and a continuing attack on Medicare and universal health care. For people accessing specialists or services that are MBS rebateable in public hospitals, it in fact has a significant impact as well.

We also have—still within the budget—the hikes to the prices of medicine. Unless the minister can come to the dispatch box and say that is now off the table—not just saying, 'That is something I somehow weirdly inherited from the last minister,' as though he was not a minister of the government and neither is she, that it belongs to somebody else—it is very difficult to believe the government on anything it has to say about the prices of medicine.

Of course, these two measures barely scratch the surface of what this government wants to do and has already done to health care in this country. There has literally been no area of health care that is off limits to this budget's razor gang, as was evidenced by the pathetic, small-minded and absurd decision to cut a very modest subsidy going to a very small group of patients who suffer from what is collectively known as inborn errors of metabolism. This cut has saved the budget $3 million. That is right: $3 million a year. And yet for those who receive this payment it means financial and emotional stress for people who already have to carry an enormous burden.

Managing these conditions requires a lifetime commitment to a rigid diet of carefully weighed, synthetic, low-protein formulas and foods that are often very expensive to buy: pasta and rice at $10 a packet and cheese that after shipping costs $68 a block. In recognition of this burden, the parliament in 2001 with then Prime Minister John Howard approved a modest subsidy now worth around $250 a month or $3,000 per year which is currently paid to around 900 families.

Without any warning or consultation, families across Australia were informed not by the minister or any announcement from the government but in a letter from the Department of Health that the grant would be ceasing. Yesterday I met here with three of the people who will suffer as a result of this cut and heard how it will affect them. One of these people was Kymberley. She is pregnant. Imagine having to cope with the burden of pregnancy and often the concern that that raises for you as you are growing this little person inside you and everything it entails in looking after the health of your baby. Imagine going through that knowing every single piece of food you eat and not getting your diet right could potentially lead to that child having a disability. What a huge burden that young woman is having to deal with and has had to deal with every single day she deals with this disorder. It means you have to check every item and weigh every ingredient of every meal.

In the midst of that, with no warning, the government takes away the modest support you receive. Then, when that decision is questioned, the Prime Minister dismisses it by saying you can just use cornflour from the supermarket instead. We now hear that the department is using some different lines to these families: 'Oh, it's an equity issue.' Frankly, again, that is just completely untrue.

As well as that cut within the budget, there were dental cuts. Across the two budgets, the government has ripped over half a billion dollars from programs designed to care for the dental health of some of Australia's most vulnerable patients—adults', children's and veterans' dental health programs that have been the subject of much debate through these parliaments.

This morning the Leader of the Opposition and visited a dental clinic in Canberra to talk about the $125 million cut from the Child Dental Benefits Schedule. Labor introduced the scheme because it was clear that many children were being denied access to essential dental care. The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare found 42 per cent of five-year-olds and 61 per cent of nine-year-olds had decay in their baby teeth. It is a national shame. A staggering 58 per cent of 14-year-olds had decay in their permanent teeth. Something needed to be done, so Labor acted. But the Abbott government has just seen an opportunity for another budget cut.

And the cuts to children's health, of course, do not stop there. This budget also included a cut of $145 million for the Healthy Kids Check. This means that patients will no longer have access to one-hour appointments with GPs for their checks, which we know have been invaluable in the early detection of asthma, hearing and speech issues as well as other developmental issues.

As warned by Sonja Walker, the Director of Kids First Children's Services at Brookvale—in the Prime Minister's own electorate—that decision means families will suffer. Ms Walker told the Manly Daily:

"There is an awful lot of kids who have communication difficulties and the opportunity to identify issues early is vital.

“Children with a language impairment are six times more likely to have a reading problem.”

There is the problem with cutting that program in a nutshell. Fewer health checks mean longer term health problems that deny these kids a decent start in life.

This is a short-sighted and callous move from a government that is demonstrating it has no commitment to universal health care. It is a cut to an important children's health program, which goes to demonstrate that this government does not believe in the universal health insurance scheme that is Medicare. It does not believe in Medicare.

Another cut that was just as short-sighted was the decision to scrap the after-hours GP helpline. The GP after-hours service offered parents with sick kids and elderly patients a vital back-up service when their GP was not available. It was established by Labor as a 365-day-a-year support service. I want to quote from a letter from one of the GPs who worked in this service. He said:

Many times I have helped callers avoid presenting unnecessarily to emergency, and sometimes told the reluctant that they really DID need to go to emergency. I have told people what medications they can use to self treat, or how to get to a medical service. I have helped manage more vomiting adults and crying babies over the phone than I care to remember. Our service was heavily utilised by those without the resources you and I have; the young, poor, refugees, the elderly, the isolated, those with mental health conditions.

That was from a GP who had been dedicating his service on that after-hours line. Well, he is not anymore. It was abolished by the Abbott government in a sneaky budget-night hit on families.

We see the cuts that are coming to the flexible fund that funds vital programs across public health—programs that are run by Alzheimer's Australia, the Consumer Health Forum and the Public Health Association—and advocacy work to ensure that health reform continues in this country. The cuts to those programs were described by the Public Health Association as a bloodbath, and that is no exaggeration when we see what is happening to prevention. This government should be ashamed of its budget on health.

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