Paul Neville (Hinkler, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is addressed to the Minister for Health and Ageing. Would the minister advise the House what steps the government has taken to make private health insurance a more attractive option for families? Are there any alternative policies? What is the minister’s response to them?

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Hinkler for his question, and I am happy to inform him and the House that the government’s broader health cover legislation has just passed through the parliament. That is very good news for the 59,000 people in Hinkler who enjoy the benefits of private health insurance. I confess that this is complex legislation, but there are two significant changes that it brings about. Firstly, the private health funds will be able to cover from their main tables out-of-hospital treatment that reasonably substitutes for or prevents in-hospital treatment.

Secondly, the funds will be required to provide much greater information about their products, and the Private Health Insurance Ombudsman will provide a comparative product website to enable patients to make more informed choices about the particular product which best suits them. Over time, these changes should mean that private health insurance is a more customer-friendly product, a more patient-friendly product, and that should build on the nine million Australians who currently enjoy the security and choice which private health insurance brings.

I have to say that everyone knows where the Howard government stands on private health insurance. We believe that a strong private health system is an essential complement to a strong public health system, to a strong Medicare system. But no-one knows where members opposite really stand. What we do know is that, deep down, members opposite hate private health. Deep down, they hate private health, and if they ever got the chance, they would rip the guts out of private health insurance by abolishing the private health insurance rebate or by means testing.

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

They say, ‘Rubbish!’ now. That is not what they will say when they have the chance to give a considered opinion. The member for Gellibrand, the shadow health minister, said that the government should spend less on private health and it should instead spend more on public hospitals. Do you deny that, do you? What did you say?

Nicola Roxon (Gellibrand, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order. The point of order is on relevance. I would ask that the minister confine himself to what I said in the debate.

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The minister is answering the question. I call the minister.

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Bill Shorten, the incoming member for Maribyrnong, recently called the private health insurance rebate:

... a subsidy to the rich.

He said it created:

... a bonanza for the multinational insurance companies.

Just last week in the Senate, Senator Sterle—who I believe is a new senator from Western Australia; he is probably Burkie’s latest addition to the Western Australian contingent in this parliament—said of the private health insurance rebate that it was ‘a monumental failure’, ‘shonky’ and ‘a monstrous failure’.

That is what those opposite say about the private health insurance rebate. How can they credibly expect anyone to believe that they would not rip the guts out of it if they had the chance in government? How can they say they support something which they are constantly criticising? What all this means is that, when it comes to private health, you just cannot trust Labor. I know that the Leader of the Opposition does not like being called Dr Death, but how can we be sure that he will not kill the private health insurance rebate stone dead?