Amanda Rishworth (Kingston, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Health) Share this | Hansard source

We are on the eve of an election and a lot of issues will be discussed during the election period. I have put on record in this place many times the stark difference between Labor and the coalition when it comes to education. Today I want to put on record the stark difference when it comes to health care. In my first speech in this place I talked about the importance of money not determining what level of health care you get in this country. It seems that what I spoke about nine years ago will be a matter for debate in this election. It seems that the government is slowly walking away from the concept of universal health care. That was on stark display in the budget—the government is now planning to freeze Medicare rebates, which is really a GP tax by stealth. Reports today suggest there will be a $14 out-of-pocket expense for those who are currently bulk-billed, and for those who are already paying a gap one would assume that that $14 will be put on top of the out-of-pocket expenses already incurred. We are starting to see very much that the out-of-pocket expenses are going to be more than the Medicare rebate, which suggests that there is no real concept of universal health care anymore in this country.

Late last year the MYEFO also included savage cuts to Medicare, particularly removing the bulk-billing incentive to pathology and diagnostic tests. That was incredibly short-sighted. Diagnostic and screening tests are all about prevention. Making those diagnostic tests more expensive would mean that people could delay getting these really important tests. Of course if you delay those tests, in the case of, for example, ovarian cancer, it could have deadly consequences—not to mention the increased costs to our medical system when individuals might have to go through extensive, invasive surgery and more longer term cancer management treatment as well. It is very short-sighted.

Today I want to touch on the impact that removing the bulk-billing incentive payments has on women's health. That has been raised a number of times with me. Removing the bulk-billing incentive for diagnostic tests will mean that mammograms will be more expensive, ultrasounds will be more expensive, pap smears will be more expensive. All of these have an impact on the availability of services particularly for women. As I said, these will lead to either higher out-of-pocket costs or, more importantly, women putting these tests off—which will, as I said, have deadly consequences. This will be a cost burden that will affect women in particular.

The message has been coming to me loud and clear, and grassroots women's movements in South Australia have been getting more and more angry about these cuts. In particular, one of the groups—the Labor Women's Network—has put out this excellent poster sending a message to Malcolm Turnbull, 'Women's health is not for sale.'

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