Anne Stanley (Werriwa, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to support the National Health Amendment (Safety Net Thresholds) Bill 2019. Labor champions fair access to health care for all Australians, including protecting our most vulnerable from excessive costs in medicines and health care. While Labor supports this bill, it won't fix the significant issues that many are facing in this country, with escalating costs of health care. That number is clear: 961,000 people a year delay or avoid taking their prescribed medicines due to cost. Recently, in my electorate office, the public face of these numbers came to meet with me. They are a pensioner couple, both over the age of 70, who regularly make decisions about which one of them needs the pain medication more, because they can't afford the cost every fortnight of both medications. How is this reasonable in a country like ours?

We know that this is not the best way for them to manage their health. Being in constant pain will curtail the exercise which will ultimately keep them as healthy as possible. For our older Australians, this is just not fair. A first-world country where citizens cannot get the best care possible because the government refuses to support them—that's the path we are worryingly heading towards in Australia.

How many drugs have been recommended for listing on the PBS by the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee and not listed? Unfortunately for people with cystic fibrosis, they can tell you that Symdeko still hasn't been listed. The health minister promised those patients and their families it would be listed as soon as it was recommended by PBAC. Well, Minister, it's been six months since it was recommended by PBAC and it has still not been listed by this government—another group of patients waiting, and more broken promises by the health minister. Cystic fibrosis destroys the lungs and the nervous system. It can't be cured, but it can be treated with drugs like Symdeko. It affects one baby born every four days. For the six months that these babies and infants, and their families, have been waiting, another 45 babies have been diagnosed with cystic fibrosis. It's time for the government to make good on their promise.

I also note the election commitment from this government, for people with type 1 diabetes, that flash glucose monitoring—or FGM—would be added to the National Diabetes Services Scheme. Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disorder, and it is not curable. Again, this typically affects children, and it is a lifelong disease. It is a leading cause of blindness, amputations and renal failure. It's time this government recognised the benefits of the flash and continuous glucose monitoring systems. Instead of pricking your finger upwards of 15 times a day, FGM and CGM machines place a small disposable sensor in the body and read blood glucose levels once every five minutes. It's like pricking your finger every five minutes for a blood sugar result without the pain, the calluses and the inconvenience.

FGM and CGM are proven to drastically improve control for people with diabetes, and greatly assist preventing the additional complications that drain our healthcare system. Baker IDI calculates the annual cost to Medicare of a person with diabetes at $3,468. For people with complications, that increases to a staggering $16,698. This government would end up spending four times as much, or around $13,000 more per year. An investment of around $2,000 per patient could avoid those complications and costs, both financial and social, and allow those patients to continue to be part of our society and have great jobs.

The health minister promised the listing of flash glucose monitoring on the NDSS as of 1 March this year. Has it been done? No, not yet. I hope this was not just an election promise. People with diabetes and their families are waiting for this promise to be kept. It is currently over seven months late, and it has been nearly a year since this promise was made. People under 21 with diabetes have access to that technology, but what about those who are over 21? In March, when the Minister for Health intended on listing flash glucose monitoring on the NDSS, 32 countries around the world had already subsidised flash glucose monitoring. Diabetes is a lifelong disease, and should be supported for all of that time. As I've already pointed out, better management means healthier people and a better budget bottom line.

As Maria Craig, a professor of paediatric endocrinology at the University of Sydney, wrote in the InSight + magazine from The Medical Journal of Australia:

Type 1 diabetes is not a choice or a lifestyle disease. I can't see a reason why Australia wouldn’t follow other nations in subsidising technology that is proven to improve the lives of people with it.

However, this government will only support people with diabetes to access constant glucose monitoring until they are 21. Even then, people with diabetes do not have a choice.

However, there are exceptions. If you have a history of multiple episodes of severe hypoglycaemia, you may be eligible. But, distressingly, there have been anecdotal reports of people deliberately triggering hypoglycaemic episodes because they can't suffer the alternatives. By doing so, people with diabetes are deliberately risking permanent damage or worse, with the possibility of complications such as kidney failure, blindness, heart failure and perhaps death.

The PBAC has recommended also more than 60 treatments to be listed on the PBS. I wonder why the government continues to stand in the way of patients accessing these much-needed treatments at costs which are more reasonable. And what is the result? Nine hundred and sixty-one thousand people skipping their treatments because they can't afford them—children, families, brothers, sisters, mums and dads skipping medication because they simply can't afford it. There are families who are dealing with chronic and potentially life-threatening illnesses, and they have to think about the costs associated with the treatment.

And this just relates to the cost of prescription medicines; let's not forget if you have to go to a doctor to get that prescription. Look at the government's record on the cost of a GP visit. Since 2013, when the government was elected, the cost of visiting GPs has skyrocketed, on average, by 36 per cent. In New South Wales and Victoria, the average has actually increased by 39 per cent. This doesn't include the $7 GP tax the government considered in the 2014 budget, a proposal that was rejected by Labor. Instead, this government then continued with the Medicare freeze, another way to introduce the GP tax by stealth. The figures are even worse when you look at the cost of seeing a specialist. The cost of visiting a GP since 2013 has gone up, on average, 36 per cent, but for a specialist visit the increase has been, on average, 58 per cent. This government has overseen sharp increases in fees that Australians pay to visit a specialist. This is on top of the blowout over the same period in the time that it takes to see a specialist in my electorate.

I am sure many of us in this place frequently see constituents who ask us how they can afford to see their doctors and treat their conditions. Recently I saw a gentleman who, due to a significant injury, is on Newstart. He needs regular specialist appointments to assist with his conditions but he can't afford them and pay bills and eat. What do you say to a proud man who breaks down in tears in front of you because he can't pay for the medicines or see his doctor? Australia's sick and chronically ill are delaying and avoiding Medicare services due to cost. That's the hard fact from the government's own experts, the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. What do you say to a family whose young son, three years old, is diagnosed with cancer and who, to be able to support him and look after him, have to run a GoFundMe page so that those treatments can happen? It shouldn't happen in this country. Ours is a country that prides itself on its access to health services and medicines that are affordable. That needs to continue.

I sum up by saying this government has not listed 60 drugs on the PBS despite PBAC recommendations, it's introduced a GP tax by stealth, it's allowed costs to see GPs to spiral out of control, it's allowed specialist visit costs to spiral out of control, and it's prevented people with type 1 diabetes having fair and equitable access to constant flash glucose-monitoring systems. When will this government consider health as a priority, as most Australians do, and support our health system for better outcomes? The government must stop further escalation in the cost of medicines, treatments, medical devices and the accessibility of health care. Australians deserve better for their health and for the health of our country.

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