James Stevens (Sturt, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Government Waste Reduction) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in favour of the second reading on this bill, the Health Insurance Legislation Amendment (Assignment of Medicare Benefits) Bill 2024. As the lead speaker for the opposition has indicated, we support the passage of the bill. Clearly, any opportunity to improve the way in which the private health insurers, the private hospitals et cetera and, most importantly, the consumers are interacting with the Medicare system is a very good thing. But it is also an opportunity to speak about some broader issues around Medicare and private health. Obviously, we in the opposition, like any Australian in the community, are quite concerned about elements of the Medicare system at the moment, particularly the reduction in bulk-billing rates. When we left office, it was over 88 per cent, and now it's down to 77 per cent under Labor. That is in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis, meaning that more people are paying more out of their pocket for their health services and that, quite concerningly, a lot of people aren't accessing the health system when they should be, because of the cost to them and their inability to meet those costs.

In my home state of South Australia, things are very grim within our health system. There are problems everywhere we look. We've endured days of elective surgery cancellations across the major metropolitan hospitals in Adelaide and ambulance ramping is worse than it has ever been—the data released for the month of May had it at the highest on record. This is reverberating throughout the health system. Obviously, if people are waiting in the back of an ambulance because they can't get admitted to a hospital, then that's not only a problem for the person that deserves and needs immediate care; it's not only a problem for the efficient running of our hospital system; and it's not only a problem for people who are therefore waiting longer for ambulances that can't respond to the call because of course they've got a patient in the back of their ambulance, which is ramped outside of the emergency room because they can't unload them, but it also means that there are enormous pressures through the broader system.

I also want to take this opportunity to put on the record my strong support for the private health insurance system and the private hospital system. I have a number of private hospitals in my electorate, and I know that the peak body for private hospitals in Australia is very concerned about the sustainability of private hospitals in this country at the moment. It's something that I hope the minister is looking at very closely and considering, because part of this bill talks about more efficiencies for Medicare benefits being processed through the private system. What I'm very concerned about is the overall sustainability of the system and whether or not the payments to private hospitals are rising appropriately. Given that private health insurance, certainly, is increasing fairly significantly, are those increases to private insurance premiums flowing to increases from the insurers to the people providing the service? We'll be in big trouble in this country if we see the private hospital system continue to deteriorate. In South Australia, a number of private hospitals are hitting viability brick walls and that's taking capacity out of the overall health system.

For people who demonise the private health system, particularly those in the Greens party, I'll just point out that every procedure done in the private system is one taking pressure out of the public system. It's just like private schools. The Greens always had the position that they don't want a private system at all; they've always had positions like scrapping the private health insurance rebate. Ideologically, the Greens don't want a private system—much like they don't want a private system in education, I might add. But they don't want private hospitals to exist. It will impact on my constituents very substantially if the Greens ever get their way and see the destruction of the private health system—particularly the private hospital system in this country. I've got hospitals like the Burnside Hospital, an endowment from Mr Otto bon Rieben, who passed away in the 1940s and left his home to the Burnside council. It operates as a private hospital now, and provides an enormously important service. In fact, my father—who might not have given me consent to reveal this to the House!—had a procedure there recently. I won't give further detail about what it was, to protect his private medical records! But he had a procedure there, and we very much appreciate the services that private hospitals like the Burnside Hospital, North Eastern Community Hospital and Sportsmed—and the list goes on—provide. They take enormous pressure off the public system, and the public system in South Australia, like across the country, is already bursting at the seams, so undermining the private hospital system is the last thing that we need right now.

In commending this bill to the House, and given that this is a bill about the way in which we support private providers and private hospitals through the health insurance system, I urge the health minister to please listen to the concerns they're raising. This concerns me greatly: whilst private health insurance premiums are increasing significantly for consumers, are the payments from private insurance companies increasing at the same rate to the people who are actually providing the services? If they're not then there's a serious viability issue imminent. I know that some of the smaller hospitals are already struggling to keep their doors open, and we don't want the situation where that capacity in our health system goes.

I also urge the Greens to reflect, when we're debating this legislation, on their dangerous position to get rid of the private health insurance rebate, to undermine the private health system in this country and to effectively remove an enormous capacity for treatment of Australians who need it more than ever. If we saw the collapse of the private health insurance system and the private hospital system because the Greens don't support it ideologically, then all Australians will be the worse for that. I just warn the Greens that their dangerous position in this area is not good for any Australian and is something they should strongly consider changing.

With those comments, I commend this bill to the House.

See this speech in context