Nola Marino (Forrest, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Health and Ageing. I refer the minister to the government’s budget cuts to Medicare benefit scheme fees for cataract surgery. Given the government’s reckless cash splashes, how does the minister justify this callous measure, which will have a devastating impact on the wellbeing of thousands of Australians—mostly battlers and pensioners—and in particular those in rural Australia?

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

I thank the member for her question. Of course there are a large number of investments that are being made in rural health. There is one in particular I am surprised the member has not taken the opportunity to ask a question about—I will get to cataracts—because she is one of the members opposite who came to see me about a range of issues in her electorate. I welcome members always being prepared to do that. She particularly asked about the shortage of doctors in her electorate, which will be significantly aided because of the rural health investments—the new structure that is being introduced to support people who are moving to regional areas. They will be paid more the more remote they go. If my recollection is right, GPs moving to her electorate will receive, in many instances, relocation incentives for the first time. So I just note in passing that I am surprised that the question does not raise anything about those investments: hundreds of millions of dollars of extra money going into rural health.

The question of cataracts is certainly something that we do not resile from at all. This is one of the many procedures on the Medicare benefits schedule that have been set at a rate for a very long period of time and that have not been adjusted with the advances of technology. This is surgery that can now be undertaken, in many instances, in a third, a quarter, a fifth or sometimes a tenth of the time it used to take. Instead of paying what is currently the fee for the most commonly performed services—about $830—for something that takes 10 to 15 minutes in most instances, there will be a payment of $409 for the MBS fees.

Andrew Southcott (Boothby, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Employment Participation, Training and Sport) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

What about the equipment costs?

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

I hear interjections from those who are ill-informed opposite, asking me about the cost of equipment. People would be aware that the Medicare benefits schedule pays for services provided. It is not intended to pay for the cost of equipment. It has never paid for the cost of equipment. When we are going to repeatedly run a health system where the costs and investments go up, when we have new technology that people want to access and when we have new drugs that people want to access then we have to be prepared to take some decisions to scale costs down where medical advances have provided a benefit to the community. This is one of those instances, and we do not resile from those changes in the budget.