Ann Sudmalis (Gilmore, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I'm pretty easy to get along with most of the time, but the talking points a couple of members on the other side have been given are quite deceptive. One spoke of the increases in doctors' fees, quoting the amounts but forgetting that the rebate is above the quoted fee. So, with bulk-billing, the people actually get their money back. Australians are the beneficiaries of huge investments by our government. How else is it that bulk-billing rates have increased so much, with the rate now at 85.9 per cent, compared with Labor's level of 82.2 per cent? There have been millions of dollars of bulk-billing for GP visits and specialist visits, especially in the regions.

We plan to invest an extra $2.8 billion in Medicare over the next four years. Labor say we're going to reduce the private healthcare costs by putting caps in place. I don't get it. That simply isn't going to happen. If the private healthcare people can't put their fees up, there will be fewer services. It's kind of logical. Labor say they'll save Australian families around $340 a year with such a cap, but most people seem to think that around a dollar a day is worth investing in their own health. They absolutely do. It's not the full amount, of course. It is the difference in the proposed increase to the one Labor suggest. It is really laughable. Labor never managed to keep the increases so low. Each and every year they were in government, the cost increased more than the 26 per cent in total that we're supposed to have had.

One of the incentives to be reviewed by Labor is the rebate, but we really need to get people to seriously consider hospital and extras cover. There is constant criticism of profit making. No matter what it relates to, it is seen as a problem for Labor. But while they whinge about private health insurance company profits, AHPRA has stated this is not a relevant factor. Higher claims costs are the driver of increased premiums, not profit levels. Do we really want longer waiting times in public hospitals while private beds are vacant? It's absolutely ridiculous. In addition, the private health insurers have come to the negotiating table and now there's encouragement for young Australians to take up insurance with a discount for 18- to 29-year-olds of up to 10 per cent on their premiums. That is better cover for mental health. There's provision for travel and accommodation. Comparing one fund against another will be much easier by having standardised definitions of gold, silver, bronze or basic. That will definitely help consumers. Small health insurers do not have massive profits, yet they are determined to provide as much assistance as possible.

The premise of today's question was related to making health care less affordable and accessible. We've increased hospital funding from $13.8 billion back in 2013-14 up to $22.7 billion proposed in the 2020-21 year. That's a huge increase. But, most importantly, ask any of the families who have a child with type 1 diabetes how their lives have changed because of this government's investment in constant glucose monitoring devices. Ask the families of those affected with multiple sclerosis now that Ocrevus is on script, saving them $35,000 a course. Ask those patients suffering multiple myeloma getting carfilzomib on script, saving $38,500. How about those families with leukaemia who can now get Imbruvica on script instead of $180,000 per course? There are 920 such families. Ask the cancer patients who have positive non-small-lung cancer and it metastasises or who have renal cell carcinoma. Each one of those are getting cancer treatments on script. I personally am proud of these financial allocations for these afflicted families.

Finally, some of the Labor representatives are calling out the lack of vision and planning for new hospitals. Last time I read the rules, the state and territory governments were responsible for that—the planning, the siting, the building, the staffing and the maintenance. The contribution of the federal government is determined by the hospital funding agreement reached at COAG, when they all sit around the table and do a bit of argy-bargy about who does what. But they build them; they look after them.

This financial year alone we are increasing funding so much and making such a big difference. Over the next five years we'll be investing more than $103.1 billion. In anybody's book, even if you're not too sure about where billions are sitting amongst millions and trillions, billions are a huge amount of money. We're doing well.

See this speech in context