Bert Van Manen (Forde, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Private Health Insurance Amendment (Lifetime Cover Loading and Other Measures) Bill 2012 and a related bill. The last time I rose to speak in this place on private health insurance amendments, I began my speech by reading out a letter written by the former leader of the Labor Party, the member for Griffith. That letter promised that the federal Labor government was committed to retaining the existing private health insurance rebate. We all know what happened next. The Prime Minister went on to break that promise through means-testing changes after previously ruling out any changes to the private health insurance rebate.

During the debate that followed the introduction of that legislation, designed to change the private health insurance rebate, those opposite claimed that only well-off people would be affected. Those opposite implied that private health insurance was a luxury for the rich. That is simply not the case. Some 10.6 million Australians have hospital cover. Another 5.6 million people with private health insurance have an annual household income of less than $50,000 and some 3.4 million have an annual household income of less than $35,000—hardly those you would classify as being rich.

In Forde, almost 50 per cent of my constituents have private health insurance, with an average weekly household income of some $1,300. These people are not rich. Most sacrifice other essentials in order to keep their private health insurance because they know that often the waiting lists at public hospitals can be lengthy and they might have a health condition that requires ongoing care through various specialists.

It is instructive to note that private hospitals treat some 40 per cent of all patients and perform two out of every three elective surgeries in Australia. It is important to understand that private hospitals are a crucial part of Australia's overall health system and are a significant part of our local communities. Presently we do not have a dedicated private hospital in Forde; however, in the near future, there are plans to build one in Beenleigh.

Labor always purport to seek to help the most disadvantaged and underprivileged, yet time and time again we see the reverse. Their very policies actually hurt those who are the most disadvantaged and underprivileged in our communities, not assist them. Given the cost of private health insurance, if premiums go up the many low-income earners who do have their own private health insurance will bear the burden of these increased premiums because of fewer people being privately insured. These people are the very ones who can least afford an increase in premiums, yet they are doing their best with their limited resources to contribute and provide for themselves.

The full effect of Labor's means-testing changes have not yet been felt. PHIAC reports $1.2 billion in prepayments in the June quarter last financial year as people tried to defer the resulting premium increases, with many policy holders prepaid for 12 months or more delaying the pain of Labor's cuts. Labor's private health insurance changes will put more pressure on the public hospitals, which are already struggling under the $1.6 billion cut out of hospital funding in MYEFO. This includes retrospective cuts to public hospital funding that has already been spent and allocated to the 2011-12 and 2012-13 financial years. This has caused the closure of public hospital beds, operating theatres and delays to elective surgery. The government has since announced a reversal of their position, but only in Victoria, surprisingly.

The federal Labor government has spent approximately $1 billion establishing nearly 12 new bureaucracies, which appear immune to the cuts, while funding has been slashed for private health insurance, public hospitals and dental health through the closure of the Chronic Disease Dental Scheme.

Earlier this year the government cuts to health were felt in Forde. Not only was my office contacted in regard to this issue but it was also raised in the local media. As with the feedback to my office, the article in the local media back in March stated that elective surgery patients across Logan can expect a waiting period of at least nine months or even more to be added to their current waiting time for treatment.

The local Logan Hospital has postponed almost half of its non-urgent elective surgeries until the new financial year starts in July. According to Metro South Health chief executive Dr Richard Ashby, non-elective surgery has been reduced from 67 to 40 operating theatre sessions per week. Some 92 patients have been contacted to reschedule surgery due before 30 June and others on the waiting list will now also be waiting for an unspecified length of time.

I am concerned for the patients on the non-urgent surgery waiting list who are suffering conditions that might be causing pain, discomfort and disability. At the time these funding cuts were first announced earlier in the year, a constituent contacted me to say how he had been affected by these delays. He was given only one week's notice that his hip replacement surgery was to be cancelled. He had already hired the equipment for his home for recovery and had been told that now surgery would not happen until at least the new financial year.

This increase in postponements and the blow-out in the waiting lists coincide directly with the Labor government taking $103 million out of the Queensland health budget, of which $19 million came out of the budget of Metro South Health. The Metro South Health community looks after 23 per cent of Queensland's population. In 2011-12, 176,333 people were admitted to Logan Hospital. Nearly 42,000 operations were performed and 218,000 people presented to emergency departments. There were another 372,000 occasions of service performed in community health centres and another 307,000 emergency dental treatments were provided.

When we look at the list of failures by this federal Labor government we see a total of $1.6 billion ripped out of public hospitals, $4 billion slashed out of private health insurance and $1 billion hacked out of dental health, and any number of other issues. Yet, unsurprisingly, this budget remains in crisis. This is not only affecting the people in my electorate but electorates right around the country. Given the concern that the full effect of Labor's changes to private health insurance has not yet been felt, this situation could have the potential to blow out as more opt of their hospital cover, jumping onto already lengthening waiting lists in public hospitals.

The government's changes to private health insurance are already having an effect. The government's own Private Health Insurance Administration Council has found in the five years to 2012 that 'exclusions and restrictions have become much more prevalent' and that the increased use of exclusions 'may work against the policy objective of private health insurance in easing the burden on public hospitals'.

The previous coalition government's private health insurance reforms in the form of rebates, the Medicare Levy Surcharge and Lifetime Health Cover saw the number of people with private health insurance increase 75 per cent from 6.1 million to over 10.7 million. Yet here today we see legislation being introduced that will add further complexity to the private health sector. The changes to Lifetime Health Cover in this Private Health Insurance Amendment (Lifetime Health Cover Loading and Other Measures) Bill 2012 will increase premiums by up to a reported 27.5 per cent from 1 July 2013. This will directly affect lower income Australians. It will also increase the administrative burden on private health insurers with short time frames to change systems by 1 July 2013. Presently, the Lifetime Health Cover loading is removed after 10 continuous years of hospital cover. But, once again, the government is changing the rules of the game on ordinary Australians. There will be people who are close to having their loading removed, having paid the loading in good faith and abiding by the appropriate rules and regulations. Now they will face average premium increases of 10 per cent but possibly up to 27 per cent and have to decide whether they retain their cover.

In regard to the Private Health Insurance Amendment (Base Premium) Bill 2013 we will not vote against this bill but I point out that the government, as on many other occasions, are rushing a piece of legislation through this parliament for their own expedient purposes. The bill was introduced only last sitting week and we have not had time to consider the detail as we would normally like. However, due to this government's economic incompetence, there is now a budget emergency.

Australians know that this Labor government, in a few short years, has turned $70 billion in net assets and a $20 billion surplus into ongoing deficits and debt with the likelihood that we will be pushed through the debt ceiling in the forward estimates period. The coalition acknowledges there are serious concerns with this latest Labor bill. This change will increase the cost of private health insurance further for all Australians with cover, irrespective of age or income.

There is a light on the hill, so to speak. We have an election in 109 days. Australians will have the opportunity on 14 September to make a decision as to whether they continue to support a government that will leave this country with the legacy of debt—along with deficit, higher living costs, carbon taxes that do not provide any practical benefit other than, in the long term, sending more of our hard-earned wealth overseas, and no vision and no plan for the future—or a coalition government that will provide hope, reward and opportunity and a vision for this country going into the future.

Steve Georganas (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The debate is interrupted in accordance with standing order 43. The debate may be resumed at a later hour.