Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Minister for Health) Share this | Hansard source

It is a privilege and an honour to deliver the summing-up on the National Health Amendment (Pharmaceutical Benefits) Bill 2016. On Thursday of last week I had the privilege of meeting with the doctors from The Hastings Clinic. Dr Peter Keillar and a number of his partners and doctors who practise within that clinic talked to me about many issues facing general practitioners. They echoed the words of Dr Bastian Seidel, the President of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, and Dr Michael Gannon, the head of the AMA. Between the three groups—the doctors, the college of GPs and the AMA—they have set out their views, which I agree with absolutely: Australians care about three things overall with their national health and their approach to individual health: firstly, the ability to access doctors; secondly, the ability to access medicines, which this bill deals with specifically, squarely and appropriately; and thirdly, the ability to access hospitals. Everything else is a means of achieving those outcomes. Our health system is ultimately and absolutely about delivering access to doctors and nurses, access to medicines and access to our hospital system. That is the means of delivering people the best possible health outcome. As part of that, and fascinatingly, the doctors at The Hastings Clinic raised with me the telephone authorisation system for the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. They raised the desire to have an automated system, which is something that can be done. So I am delighted to be able to say to Dr Peter Keillar and others from that clinic that right now we are bringing this proposed law to the parliament to deliver that outcome. I think it is a very important thing for the medical professionals and an even more important thing for the patients and for the pharmacists, who, respectively, take those medicines and dispense them. So this is a significant initiative.

It comes within a broader long-term national health plan aimed at a very simple goal—that is, to take what is a world-class health system, as it is supported by some of the best doctors and nurses in the world, and turn it into the best health system in the world. That is my goal and that is why we are setting out a plan to 2030. That plan is built on four core pillars. One is a rock-solid commitment to Medicare and to the PBS, or the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. We see that being strengthened with this bill. In particular, in relation to Medicare, there are two fundamentals. First, funding goes up each and every year from $22 billion, to $23 billion, to $24 billion, to $25 billion over the coming years. Secondly, we have just had the highest half-yearly bulk-billing figures for GPs in Australian history, almost 3½ per cent higher than when Labor left office. It has gone from 84.7 per cent a year ago to 85.4 per cent now. When we talk about bulk-billing what it means is that people are able to go to the doctor without having to dip into their pocket. More services, a higher rate of bulk-billing and more investment in Medicare—that is the reality of what is occurring.

Similarly, what we are seeing under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme is the fact that we have listed $4.9 billion in new medicines since coming to office. That includes drugs for hepatitis C and, as the member for Bendigo mentioned, Kalydeco for beautiful young children aged 2 to 5, inclusive, to assist with cystic fibrosis. I had the fortune of meeting with some of these young children and their magnificent parents—brave young children and determined parents. This will transform their lives. These are drugs that on the open market would cost up to $300,000 a year, which is effectively beyond the reach of all but a tiny fraction of Australian families, even for those who are willing to sacrifice virtually everything. It is simply not possible without the government managing the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme in such a way that we can add Kalydeco and olaparib, a drug for ovarian cancer that would otherwise have cost over $100,000 a year for women suffering from this most difficult and tragic of conditions. So these are really powerful steps forward.

At the same time, as the second pillar what we also see is a commitment to strengthening the hospital system, both the public system, which is absolutely fundamental in Australia, and the private system, and the private health insurance system, to which we are fully committed as a government and as a coalition. Thirdly, the pillar of mental health and preventive health is being raised to the highest level for the first time in Australian health policy. It has equal billing with hospitals and Medicare, as it should, because mental health issues, as the National Mental Health Commission has outlined, affect four million Australians every year. Four million Australians—so we need more front-line services. Fourthly, with medical research we have the Medical Research Future Fund, the National Health and Medical Research Council and the Biomedical Translation Fund as the three core components of our commitment to creating cures and to having new diagnoses, new drugs and new devices that can assist people to manage and improve their health.

Against that background, this bill contributes to that process. In short, what the National Health Amendment (Pharmaceutical Benefits) Bill 2016 does is make it easier for doctors to prescribe. It will reduce by up to a half a million the number of phone calls each month. That is exactly what the doctors at The Hastings Clinic said to me: 'Less time on the phone. More time with the patients.' It provides a legal basis for prescriptions through an automated online system with real safeguards and real protections. It has the bipartisan support of the House. I thank the opposition, the Pharmacy Guild, the AMA, the RACGP, and the officers of the Department of Health. It is a real step forward and for those reasons I commend the bill to the House.

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