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

I want to go to some of the savings measures that are contained in the Health portfolio, but, first, I want to note a number of the spending measures that are contained within the Health portfolio. They are measures that, in general, we support. I don't want to hear the sort of nonsense we heard from the minister after the last budget around diagnostic imaging—around us not supporting budget measures. I think it would be undignified if he were to do that again. I also want to note that it was a year ago that the minister used this very forum to speak fairly disrespectfully about a respected health journalist. The minister was ultimately forced to apologise for that conduct, but we've since learned that there's a bit of a pattern of behaviour from this minister, so I hope that we can conduct the debate with a bit more dignity this year than we did last year.

The budget before us includes, in the Health portfolio, $1 billion worth of additional savings, and those savings include $416 million from the GP visa changes, which are attributed to the Health portfolio. Whilst the measure itself sits in the Home Affairs portfolio, the savings are attributed to the Health portfolio. The savings also include $336 million from increased use of generic and biosimilar medicines; $190 million from the MBS review; $78 million from improved use of blood products and antirheumatic drugs; and $40 million from MedicineWise and the National Return of Unwanted Medicines project. Frankly, compared to the fairly deep and terrible cuts we saw in the 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017 budgets, $1 billion may not seem a great deal, but I think it does warrant some scrutiny here.

In particular, I want to go to the $416 million that is attributed to savings to the Health portfolio from the visa changes for GPs. The AMA, in particular, has argued that these savings will not be realised because patients will move to other GPs. The government is insistent that the savings will actually be realised. There is a problem here. Either the government is saying that, because of the visa changes, there will be $416 million in savings because of a reduction in Medicare service usage as a result of fewer GP services being billed in those areas, which are largely rural and remote areas, or it actually has a hole in its budget. That is the problem. Either the government has a hole in its budget or it is in fact counting on a $416 million reduction in Medicare service usage. As I said, the government is insistent that these savings will be realised, and, frankly, $416 million is equivalent to 11 million GP visits. That is a lot.

There is, of course, another question here: where is the money from these savings going? The government claims it will reinvest or redirect these savings into the entirety of the Health portfolio. There's no guarantee at all about how it intends to do so. An example of that is the $190 million that has been taken from the MBS review. We've supported that review. This removes some MBS items and changes eligibility or usage requirements for some MBS items, but the listings in this budget show that there are only $25 million of new MBS listings. Funding the projected growth in Medicare services is not funding new Medicare services nor funding new innovation in Medicare. It is funding the overall portfolio, but it is not funding new innovation, so that is in fact a cut to Medicare.

We know that the cuts to Medicare have had a substantial impact on out-of-pocket costs. We are seeing out-of-pocket costs going up substantially under this government, and that is forcing Australians to skip basic health care. This government does not have a plan to actually tackle those increasing out-of-pocket costs, which have largely occurred because of this government's freeze on the Medicare Benefits Schedule. I note that, as of today, not a single part of that freeze has been lifted. On 1 July, we will see some relief in relation to GPs and some specialists, but the remainder of the freeze, large parts of the freeze, continue until 2020.

I want to again draw the government's attention to reports around a trading of MRI licences for One Nation's vote on tax cuts. I want to ask the minister: instead of horsetrading with life-saving MRIs, will you support our plan to fund 20 new MRI licences around the country; and are you still insistent on your $416 million cut to Medicare services?

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