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

We heard in question time today some of the consequences of this government's decision to change the Senate voting rules. Sitting in the Senate, unable to be passed because of the actions of this opposition, are several health measures that this government has wanted to inflict on the Australian people. Sitting in the Senate, of course, are the increases to Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme co-payments for general and concessional patients, making medicine more expensive. It is $1.3 billion extra that patients will be paying to access medicines.

Of course, there are also the changes to the safety net which mean that, while some people might reach the safety net earlier, they will get a lot less back when they actually do. Again, it is a cut to the safety net. We are also waiting to see introduced a number of regulations which will see a co-payment introduced for pathology tests; the scrapping entirely of bulk-billing incentive for pathology, leading to a co-payment; and major changes to bulk-billing incentives for diagnostic imagine, which will see, because patients have to pay for both pathology and diagnostic imaging tests up-front if they are being charged a co-payment, in the case of diagnostic imaging hundreds of dollars for people to access tests such as an MRI. This is what the government wants to do with its Senate voting reforms. If it gets them through and calls a double dissolution election, you can bet your bottom dollar that this is what they want to do.

It is worth reminding people just what an appalling record this government has when it comes to the health of our nation. This government at every single opportunity has attempted, through budget, after Mid-Year Economic Financial Statement and in every single policy it has introduced, to undermine our universal health insurance scheme that is Medicare. It is worth remembering that the Abbott-Turnbull government took the decision to cut $57 billion out of our public hospital system, meaning that it will not be able to keep up with demand in our public hospital systems across the nation. Those cuts have already started, but the bulk of them start next year. If you have tried to get into a public hospital recently for elective surgery, if you have tried to get into an emergency department or if you are waiting for an operation and you think it is bad, just you wait to see what this government is about to inflict on this nation when it comes to public hospital funding.

We have seen this government cut millions of dollars out of preventive health programs—programs that are trying to tackle obesity, tobacco and alcohol consumption in this country to keep people well so that they do not end up in our acute system. They are trying to reduce demand over the longer term.

We heard again the government in the 2014 budget cut funding to public dental, but over the weekend, not satisfied with that, the government is now toying—pretty seriously, I understand—with the idea of cutting the kids dental program. That is a program we are very proud of on this side of the House. We knew how important it was to try to address the issue of oral health for young Australians, because the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare had reported most distressingly that the amount of under-five-year-olds who were losing their baby teeth due to tooth decay had increased and was continuing to increase in this nation. It is a scheme that in essence introduces a Medicare benefits scheme. It is now integral to the entire universality of Medicare that we have a kids dental scheme that one million children in this nation have taken up. This is a program that this government has now got in its sight.

You thought that they could not do much more, but we saw in the 2014 budget three separate attempts to introduce a GP tax and make sure that patients trying to access general practitioners were paying a co-payment. They continue to do that by stealth by continuing the freeze on Medicare benefit schedules. This is seeing patients start to have larger co-payments charged and in some cases patients who were never charged co-payments starting to have to pay those as well. All of these measures still sit in the government's budget. Some of them have not passed the Senate, because of Labor's opposition, but you can bet your bottom dollar: you give this government any single chance at the next election and almost immediately you will see those measures put in place.

I want to go back in particular to the cuts to public hospitals. Given just how widespread the cuts to our universal health system, Medicare, and the sustained attack this government has inflicted on Medicare have been, it is hard to concentrate on the detail, because it has been so widespread. But $57 billion of cuts to our public hospital system has very real consequences. When Labor was in office we knew we were facing a very real problem when it came to access to public hospital services, including elective surgery, emergency department and keeping up with demand as people age and we have more and more chronic disease. The acute system is coming under substantial pressure. So we took a year to commission the National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission to look seriously at what you need to do to Australia's healthcare system—prevention, primary care, community based care and our acute system. What do we need to do to make Australia's health system work better and how do we make sure that we have the funding to do so?

What did the government do when it came to office? It basically threw out every single one of Labor's healthcare reforms and it has used health purely as a cash cow for the budget. It has used health to take money constantly out of public hospitals, dental and now our kids dental, prevention and general practice. And what has happened? We are now seeing the results of that across this nation. The $57 billion out of public hospitals saw the Premier of New South Wales—not someone who is overly familiar with our side of politics—say that it was simply unsustainable. What you have at the moment is the government running around and trying to come up with a last-minute deal to get it out of political strife as it heads into an election. It is a deal—if it does the deal that we have heard about—that will see the acute sector on its knees in this country. As I said at the start, if you are a patient trying to get into a public hospital for elective surgery or you have been in an emergency department recently or you are currently in hospital and you are struggling, you can guarantee that this is about to get worse because of the Abbott-Turnbull government.

The government's latest MYEFO budget talks about what it wants to do to pathology and diagnostic imaging. I have spent a bit of time in pathology labs and in radiography clinics over the last few weeks having a chat to patients, pathologists and radiologists about the impact of the government's decisions. The government is trying to say, 'This is no big deal. It's really not going to have much of an impact on patients or, if it does, it is all the fault of radiographers and pathologists in particular.' It is taking $650 million out of pathology and diagnostic imaging for incentives that make sure that patients are bulk billed. Bulk-billing is important to try to keep fees down in the system, but it makes sure that we keep these vital tests affordable for patients. In the case of diagnostic imaging in particular, the cuts are significant. For example, multiple scans are required for a woman diagnosed with breast cancer. That woman, who was previously bulk billed, will face up-front costs of up to $554 for mammograms and ultrasounds with these cuts in place and will be left around $300 out of pocket, even after receiving all of the Medicare rebates. For many of the patients who are now bulk billed, those sorts of costs are simply unaffordable. This is what the government has wanted to do to our health system, and it will do it if it is successful with Senate reforms. The government has simply tried to slash and cut Medicare and has tried to introduce a two-tiered system in this country. This is the Turnbull government proving that, no matter who the leader is, you can only ever trust Labor when it comes to maintaining Medicare, strengthening Medicare and investing in our universal healthcare system.

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