Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

There are now more than 10,000 babies born through assisted reproductive technologies each year in Australia. It is estimated that patients who currently pay only $4,000 per IVF cycle—still an expensive decision—will now be slugged with a bill of between $10,000 and $15,000. This is also at a difficult and stressful time in their lives. That is a huge increase in cost, particularly when couples often go through more than one cycle of IVF. That increase could be crippling to a young couple trying to start their family. Imagine their stress if the IVF cycle is not successful. Not only will they be terribly disappointed by their failure to conceive; but there will also be the knowledge that in order to have another chance to conceive they will have to face those huge costs again—another expensive roll of the dice. The President of the Fertility Society, Associate Professor Mark Bowman, claims that this bill will result in 1,000 fewer babies being born every year and an increase in sets of twin, triplets and other multiple births.

The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists also has concerns about this bill. One of their concerns is that people with serious mental illnesses will no longer have access to psychiatric services. They are also concerned that sexual abuse victims, who are currently the subject of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, will also not have access to psychiatric services. Psychiatrists and psychotherapists have warned that these changes will lead to an increase in the incidence of suicide among this vulnerable patient group. There is much at stake for this group of patients and the groups I have mentioned. It is not just about the extra costs of the service.

The existing arrangements provide that all out-of-pocket costs for out-of-hospital Medicare services will count towards the threshold. This bill will restrict the out-of-pocket costs that will contribute to reaching the threshold, making it harder to get to that threshold. Then, once the threshold is reached, there will be further caps on what will be covered. This is a cruel policy. The purpose of the safety net—the very essence of what the safety net is about—is to ensure that when a person faces a large amount of out-of-pocket health costs in one year they will be protected.

This purpose underlines the basic principle of Medicare—that every Australian should have access to the highest quality of medical care, regardless of their capacity to pay. That is what Whitlam was about when he introduced the bill in the first place. I know Fraser overturned it, but then the Hawke government brought it back in and it has been accepted by John Howard and by every Labor Prime Minister, obviously, but even by Tony Abbott. But now they are even undermining that universal healthcare principle. The most vulnerable patients are the ones that will suffer because of this legislation. Those with cancer, couples undergoing IVF, people with serious mental illnesses and victims of sexual abuse are the ones who will be hit hardest by the financial impact of this bill.

This government was elected on the promise of 'no cuts to health'. That was the commitment given by the leader of the coalition before the last election. That promise did not last past their first budget, and now we are seeing it made even worse. There was the GP tax, $57 billion in cuts to hospitals; and now this $270 million in 'reforms' to the Medicare safety net. This bill is nothing short of a cut to public health. In real terms it will mean massively increased out-of-pocket costs for some people—and, as I said, particularly those who are most vulnerable.

I know from my constituents that people value the Medicare system and care about protecting it. Just yesterday one of my constituents posted on my Facebook page this comment:

As an older woman, I say leave us alone. My husband is fighting cancer.

We both paid our taxes, medicare levies, and for 54 years my husband struggled to pay for private health. Why? Cos he believed, like many in our age bracket, that we were protecting our family's welfare.

You have no idea of 'struggle'.

This bill will hit the most vulnerable in our society the hardest. For that, I condemn the Abbott-Turnbull government. People battling with cancer treatment deserve more. People struggling to start a family with the assistance of IVF need to be considered, particularly with the benefits that will come to our society as birth numbers decrease. People who are victims of sexual abuse and people suffering from mental illness do not need this.

Could this bill be any more cruel? I ask the health minister to reconsider this piece of legislation and I ask the Turnbull government to reconsider this bill. I will not be supporting it.

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