Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I have received a letter from the honourable member for Ballarat proposing that a definite matter of public importance be submitted to the House for discussion, namely:

The Government making healthcare more expensive and less accessible for Australians.

I call upon those members who approve of the proposed discussion to rise in their places.

More than the number of members required by the standing orders having risen in their places—

Ms Catherine King (Ballarat, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Health and Medicare) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There is no better example of this government's unfair priorities than their defence of big business tax cuts and big insurer profits at the same time as they're making health care more expensive and less accessible for every Australian. Everywhere you turn, this government is making it harder for Australians to get the healthcare that they need: when they visit a GP, when they need to see a specialist, when they pay for private health insurance or when they need to visit an emergency department of a public hospital. In the choice between protecting the profits of big business and protecting the health of Australians, this government always puts Australians last.

And they cannot be trusted when it comes to Medicare. Who could forget the Prime Minister, the day before the last election, promising that no Australian would pay more to see a GP due to their Medicare freeze? I can't say in this place the word that I would like to say about that, but, suffice it to say, it was a gross untruth. In every state and territory, out-of-pocket costs to visit a GP have gone up and up since the election. Since the Liberals were elected in 2013, they have managed to implement their GP tax by stealth. In my home state of Victoria, patients are now paying $7.70 more out of their own pockets to see a GP than in December 2013.

The worst part is that this Prime Minister has yet to lift a single part of his Medicare freeze. The rebates for GPs, for specialists and for allied health services all remain frozen. As of today, every single part of this government's freeze on patient rebates remains—every single part of it—and we know that the freeze won't be fully lifted until 2020. After the election, the Prime Minister pretended to have listened to the people, pretended that he'd learnt his lesson. But Australians will go to the next election with parts of this government's Medicare freeze, which they rejected in 2016, still in place—proof that this government has not learnt a single thing.

Mr Hunt interjecting—

I hear Mr Medi-no-care at the table here. Mr Medi-no-care likes to pretend that he's actually got something to say about policy. He's all politics and no substance, this Minister for Health over here, trying to pretend that he's actually done something about it.

The government has cut $2.2 billion out of Medicare. That is what this government has done. That is on top of the savings and the cuts they had already made. This $2.2 billion cut from Medicare comes out of the pockets of patients every time one of them goes to the GP, every time they visit a specialist and every time they receive Medicare allied health services. This makes health care more expensive and less accessible for all Australians. It creates additional barriers for those who rely on our healthcare system the most and it stretches our hardworking GPs to do more and more with less and less. This is this government's legacy when it comes to health care.

Of course, for many families, the big part of healthcare affordability is the impact of private health insurance. But when we have a government that cares more about protecting the profits of insurers than they do about protecting consumers then family budgets will always lose. Premiums have increased by 27 per cent since the Liberals were elected in 2013, including the rise we're about to see in April. These increases have added an average $1,000 to the annual premium health bill of Australian families and older Australians. What does the health minister do? He wants us to congratulate him for that rise! He tries to get stories up in the local newspapers about what a great job he's done increasing private health insurance premiums yet again.

We know that so many Australians are questioning the value of their private health insurance. That's why, in 2017, private hospital coverage dropped to the lowest level since 2011. At the same time as ordinary families are struggling to make ends meet, the private health insurance industry is raking in $1.8 billion in pre-tax profits. That's what the industry is getting. But, while this government won't stand up to their private health insurance mates, while they continue to put profits before patients, the status quo will not change. As an example, the government gave the insurers more than $1 billion in savings, and they have still hit the Australian public with an increase that is twice CPI—and you think that is good enough.

Labor knows that the status quo is not acceptable. Something must be done to shift the balance back to consumers. That's why we're acting to make private health insurance fairer and more affordable. The minister says, 'We've really got them with us.' We don't want the private health insurers with us on this. We're actually on the side of the consumers. You're making it clear. You're backing the insurers; we're backing the Australian people every single day. That's why we're acting to make private health insurance fairer.

We will deliver cost-of-living relief to 13 million Australians through capping private health insurance premiums to two per cent a year for the first two years after we're elected and task the Productivity Commission with the biggest review of the industry in 20 years. Labor will deliver, to 1.7 million Australian families, an average saving of $340 to the family budget.

For years and years, Australians have seen their private health insurance premiums soar and the value of their private health insurance plummet. Private health insurance is no good if you can't use it when you need it most. However, under this government, we have seen people hit with increased out-of-pocket costs and gap payments. Ten years ago only 8.6 per cent of health insurance policies contained exclusions; today it's 40 per cent. Australians are paying a lot more for their health insurance policies and getting a lot less.

The best examples of the need for action on this come from our constituents, who we know are battling with pressures around the family budget and seeing firsthand the impact of this crisis. Alison, a mum from Mackay, wrote to me saying she'd cancelled her private health insurance, a family policy with Medibank Private, because she no longer sees the value in having private health insurance. She says, 'It's time the Australian government got together with insurance providers to review the whole private health insurance industry and come up with a system that provides more value to Australians.'

We are not apologising at all for our policies, because we have put consumers at the heart of our policies. You have put the private health insurance profits at the heart of yours. Of course, this government's approach of putting health and patients last wouldn't be complete without their appalling treatment of our public hospitals. Last week, we saw the government's secret plan to lock in seven years of public hospital cuts. It is an insult to Australian patients and more proof that this government cares more about defending a big-business tax cut than properly funding this nation's health system.

Elective surgery waiting times under this Prime Minister are the worst since records have been kept. Patients presenting to emergency departments requiring urgent medical attention are being left for longer, with only 66 per cent of urgent emergency department patients in 2016-17 seen within the recommended 30 minutes—another consecutive decline under this government. More than 50 per cent of public hospital doctors are working unsafe hours that put them at significant risk of fatigue, including 75 per cent of intensive care specialists, with the AMA saying the strain and the pressure on our public hospitals is having a detrimental impact on the health of their doctors.

The government is so out of touch that it claims that, by keeping the status quo when it comes to hospital funding and doing the minimal that they have to do in order to skate their way through what is a very, very significant policy area—the funding of our public hospitals—is a very generous offer. Whether it is cutting Medicare, cutting funding to public hospitals or failing to stand up to the big-profit health insurers, wherever you turn, this government cannot be trusted on health. They cannot be trusted.

Out-of-pocket costs to see a GP have never been higher. The Prime Minister has not dropped a single part of their freeze. The fact is that this government does not think that investing in the health of Australians is more important than investing in big business and giving them a tax handout. This government and this minister care nothing about Medicare. (Time expired)

Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Minister for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This government has delivered the lowest premium rise in 17 years in private health, lower than every single year under Labor. Labor's average rise is 40 per cent higher than has occurred this year. They know—look at them. They see six per cent, 5.8 per cent, 5.6 per cent, 5.1 per cent, 5.6 per cent and 6.2 per cent as opposed to the 3.95 per cent that we've just delivered. Those are the actual rises, the actual premiums; the realities that consumers faced.

In the last year, we have embarked upon the biggest reform in private health insurance in a decade and it delivers the lowest changes in 17 years. But let us understand this: what they said last time they went into government was that they weren't going to touch private health insurance. They were not going to go near it. The then shadow minister, the member for Gellibrand, said on many occasions, for many months: 'Federal Labor has made it crystal clear that we're committed to retaining all of the private health insurance rebates, including the 30 per cent general rebate.' Then they axed it. Then they cut $4 billion from private health. They lied. They deceived. They told untruths. They misled the Australian public. What did the member for Sydney, the current Deputy Leader of the Australian Labor Party, say after they left government? 'How did I pay for it? I paid for it by targeting private health insurance.' You won't hear a clearer example of (a) hypocrisy, (b) dishonesty and (c) sheer hatred for private health insurance. They slashed the rebate and this time they will slash the rebate again.

All of this came about because the Leader of the Opposition, trying to be very smart, made a disastrous speech to the Press Club. In that speech, he sort of hinted that the private health insurance rebate might go. He had to walk back from that by breakfast the next morning, appearing on breakfast TV to say, 'We won't abolish it,' but he left open the potential and the plan to slash it. But, more than that, irrespective of what they do to the rebate, as they did last time, they also want to rip away the lowest cost premiums from those who are least capable of affording private health. They would take away what the rest of the industry calls 'basic'. If you've just reconfirmed that you want to get rid of basic policies, you've committed to a 16 per cent increase—

Ms Catherine King interjecting —

He just did. And, no, it's not. It's a 16 per cent increase in private health insurance premiums. Let us understand this: Labor have a plan, a proposal, an intention, a commitment to a 16 per cent increase in private health insurance premiums. That's what they did last time: they took an axe to the rebate. That's what they will do next time: take an axe to the rebate and put in place a 16 per cent rise in private health insurance. You may value private health insurance. Labor have never had a belief in it. They don't support it. They haven't supported it. The member for Sydney made it absolutely clear that she was proud of 'targeting' private health insurance.

There is the current policy—the disaster; the thought bubble. I didn't use those words myself. There is somebody called Mark Fitzgibbon, well known to the member for Hunter as his brother and also the head of NIB. What did he say? He described it as a 'thought bubble'. Most interestingly, the day before the private health insurers were informed of this, the member for Ballarat met with them and she told them there were no secret plans to cap private health. She told them—

Ms Catherine King interjecting—

Yes, I was, effectively—'There are no secret plans to cap private health.' Twenty-four hours later, she had to ring around and apologise, 'I'm sorry. It's not me. I know I said this yesterday.' This is one of the great humiliations for somebody who seeks to be the health minister of this country. Trust with that sector has been eroded. She knows and we know that this was a last-second attempt to fix up a disastrous Press Club speech. What has been the response? Forget us. Forget the major health insurers. This is what the CEO of the Teachers Union Health Fund, only last week, said:

To continue to make the products affordable and so the 2 per cent can be accommodated, insurers might reduce benefits for certain procedures or restrict them ...

Insurers would reduce benefits. In other words, gaps would go up, there would be a reduced number of procedures and choice would go down. Gaps up; choice down. What an assault on the health system in Australia—the very thing that they seek to support; the very thing that they pretend matters to them: lower out-of-pocket costs and better choice for consumers. They would take an axe to both of them.

This isn't just a bad policy; this is a disastrous policy, because it would drive people off private health insurance and therefore drive up public hospital waiting lists. It is very rare that you see the capacity to do damage to everybody with a policy but, on this occasion, the Leader of the Opposition's last-minute thought bubble and last-minute attempt to recover from a disastrous speech to the Press Club is dangerous policy that would have catastrophic impacts on public health, on private health and for patients. The people who would most suffer are the lowest income earners—the pensioners who are struggling to meet their payments. This is why we've embarked on the biggest reform in a decade, and we still have a lot more to do. They are the ones who will be most likely to need private health as they are older and they are the ones who therefore will be most likely to have higher out-of-pocket costs. This is an attack on the health and security of our pensioners and our seniors, and it is an extraordinary moment of policy failure on behalf of the Labor Party.

Then we go on to public hospitals. What we've seen is a $30 billion increase from $98 billion to $128 billion in what's being offered over the new five-year period as opposed to the current five-year period. What we see is an extraordinary increase already signed onto by Western Australian Labor. The Western Australian Labor government has signed onto this. The New South Wales government has signed onto it. After all the criticism, Queensland made it clear, Victoria also opened the door and we know that the ACT and the Northern Territory are on the way. This is what we see, despite those opposite calling around, trying to tell their Labor mates, 'Please, don't sign up.' What sort of parliamentarians are you when you try to stop a national deal by calling around state leaders? What sort of people are you when you do that? Despite that, we've seen that this has landed in an extraordinarily positive place and will deliver $30 billion of additional funding.

Labor, prior to the last election, liked to hint that they were going to add $57 billion. How much did they actually turn up with? They turned up with $2 billion. That represents four per cent of their pledged and promised initiatives—a 96 per cent failure rate. Anywhere else, that's a fail. But, I tell you what, these people don't even stack up in their wildest fantasies to our reality. Since the Prime Minister's agreement, there's been a $7.7 billion increase in public hospital funding under this government, and that's before you get to a $30 billion increase, from $98 billion to $128 billion. Those are the facts. They are the realities. Most significantly, when you go to what it means to patient care, we've also seen record bulk-billing numbers. Bulk-billing represents people being able to go to the doctor without having to pay, without having to put their hand in their pocket. We are up to 85.9 per cent. That is 3.2 per cent higher as a percentage of the population than it was when Labor left government.

What we see is increased hospital funding, record bulk-billing rates and the lowest private health insurance premium rate in 17 years. It is worth recalling Labor's private health insurance cost hikes of 5.8, 5.6, 5.1, 5.6 and 6.2 per cent. At the same time, they slashed the rebate. In the end, we believe in the public hospital system and we believe in Medicare. We've backed it with the reality of Medicare funding going from $23 billion to $24 billion to $26 billion to $28 billion. We've backed it with a $30 billion increase in public hospital funding. We've backed it with record bulk-billing rates, and we've backed it with the once-in-a-decade reforms that have delivered the lowest private health insurance changes in 17 years. We will protect private health from the acts and the price hikes on the other side. (Time expired)

Tony Zappia (Makin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Medicare) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I've just listened listen to the Minister for Health and I'm not surprised at all, after listening to his rebuttal of our MPI today, why people in my community—and, I suspect, across Australia—are simply not convinced by his rhetoric.

When I ask people what matters most to them come election time, inevitably, the first two issues that come front and centre of mind are health and education. On both matters, this government, the Turnbull government, has proven to be shifty time and time again, and voters can see through it. We saw that trickery again last Friday when the government tried to lock in seven years of hospital funding cuts to the states by pretending to offer them a few more dollars on top of the $50 billion that was cut in 2013 to make out that it's doing something. The smart premiers could see straight through it. I'm pleased that the Premier of South Australia is not prepared to accept less money for people in South Australia than was otherwise coming to South Australia had this government honoured the agreement and funding deal that we all expected.

The hospital funding cuts come at a time when hospitals across Australia are struggling to meet the service levels that are imposed upon them—service levels which come onto hospitals and, in particular, the outpatient service because people simply cannot afford to go to their GPs. In turn, because people can't afford to go to their GPs because the costs have increased as a result of this government's policies, they turn up at the outpatient's department and therefore there are waiting lists and queues there for people to get treatment.

I want to talk briefly about private health insurance, because the minister made a strong rebuttal of our claim that he has mismanaged that area of public health policy. Private health insurance has gone up 27 per cent during the time of this government, at a time when the CPI cost of living has been less than 10 per cent. It's almost three times more. The truth of the matter is that the private health insurance industry has been making good profits—$1.8 billion last year, with some of the companies making around 20 per cent on their money. As the member for Ballarat has quite rightly pointed out, when you look at the service that has been provided under those policies, 40 per cent of the policies today have exclusions compared to fewer than nine per cent only 10 years ago. So, consumers are not getting value for money because of this government's very policies.

I want to quote one example of a constituent who wrote to me in the last two weeks. She is a person who has been on a disability pension for 24 years and attends a private dialysis clinic every week. She does that in order to save the public health costs. She is a private health insurance patient on a pension writing to me because the pension increase is in no way keeping up with the increase in the cost of her private health insurance and she is now struggling. This is a person who doesn't have a lot of choice in life.

It goes a lot further than that. Today we acknowledge the 10th anniversary of the national apology. I say that because Indigenous life expectancy across Australia is some 10 years or more less than for most Australians. We know that people in the country, whether or not they're Indigenous, generally suffer from worse health than people in the cities. Given that some 500,000 Indigenous people live in the country, the situation is much more dire. The new president of the Rural Doctors Association of Australia said: 'The Medicare freeze has done some real damage to rural doctors'—this was said by the RDAA president only a couple of hours ago in this place. It highlights how out of touch this government is with respect to the hurt and pain it is inflicting on communities and the profession itself.

The reality is that out-of-pocket costs have gone up, and that in turn has pushed people into the public hospitals or caused people to simply not go to their doctor for themselves or their children when they should. That in turn means that, ultimately, the costs of the illness are going to increase because the illness will only get worse.

This is a government that not only is out of touch because it's got its priorities wrong—giving money to big business when health and education are being pushed to one side—but truly doesn't get that health care in this country is more expensive and less accessible because of its policies.

Andrew Laming (Bowman, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's always a pleasure to engage in this 4 pm frolic where Labor desperately tries to get the topic of discussion away from jobs and the economy and back onto health care in the desperate hope that the Medi-flop campaign can be extended into another election term.

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Andrew Laming (Bowman, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

For those who are barking over on the other side, the great frustration is that none of them have any economic training. When you don't have an understanding of health economics, home-spun wisdoms like capping insurance premiums seem like an awfully good idea. When you're sitting around a table at a Chinese restaurant table, capping insurance premiums at two per cent would be a fabulous idea—except that no-one has ever done it because they know it doesn't work. Of course, there's only one person over there with any economic training, but the Labor Party doesn't listen to the member for Fenner. They don't even listen to the one individual over there with some health experience. They don't listen to the member for Macarthur, who has had a genuine career in health. Actually walking down a hospital corridor is some basic prerequisite for knowing something about the health system—but you don't listen to him. His extension in the building is 2311. Just phone the guy and ask him: 'Is this a great idea?'

Maybe we should cap home insurance. Maybe we should cap car insurance. There is a very good reason that we don't do it—it has unintended second-round affects and it leads to insurers doing really bad things like not properly covering their customer base, cutting back on what they cover and ultimately damaging the people seeking insurance. When you live in the Labor world of insurance, where insurers are enemies, private health providers are enemies and we've got to slice into the premium and do it by capping, that's precisely what happens. What happens is what we have seen before when you allow the market to not be able to set that rate rise and you just pluck two per cent out of the air. Insurers game the system in a desperate way to survive and the poorest and most vulnerable miss out. On the other hand, health inflation—something those on the other side of the chamber do not understand—runs at 7.5 per cent. If you can get your increases down under that, that is in fact a victory. This government has done that—for the first time getting it well under that mark. When you get it down to 3.95 per cent, covering half of Australia's population, that's a victory.

Where does two per cent come from? It's not derived from the market; it's plucked out of thin air. When every insurer in the country tells you that that would be damn stupid, there must be something in it. They actually live in the health sector. They actually walk the corridors. They know how hospitals work. Ladies and gentlemen in the gallery, the most the collective over there know about the health system is when the visiting hours are at the local public hospital. None of these guys over there have ever walked the corridors of a hospital or popped a stethoscope around their neck. They just invented a two per cent PHI increase and wonder why—

Ms Catherine King interjecting—

When you see that big fat attractive button and you're advised to maybe not do it, the Labor Party will just press that button and see what happens—because there's no understanding of community rating and no understanding of lifetime health cover. This is a party that simply doesn't understand exclusions. When they see an exclusion of a primary healthcare product, they go, 'This patient's not getting any value for money'. That's fine, put the cover back on the patients that don't want the cover, push up their premiums and see how they feel. Exclusions are there for a good reason, but those opposite don't understand choice and don't understand why exclusions are there. If you want to exclude an extra, every Australian deserves the right to do that.

The Labor Party is a party that doesn't understand insurance economics at all. You've got the member for Fenner who could explain it and you don't even promote the guy or pay him for his Harvard-level expertise. You have one person with health experience over there, and the phone doesn't ring at 2311. That could have saved you this mortal embarrassment, shadow spokesperson, between now and the next election. The people the Labor Party are trying to lure and seduce, the people they are trying to pick up with their ridiculous health non-economics and language of cuts—when in fact health funding is increasing—do not trust the Labor Party. If it comes to whipping up a union rally, trust those people; they are great at that. Those opposite have zero expertise in health, but they're great with a scare campaign. The very people that the Labor Party are trying to seduce and induce to follow them will not fall for it, because they understand that this is a party with no understanding of private health insurance.

Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Being lectured to by members from the Medi-no-care team opposite about a lack of understanding or empathy in the Australian healthcare system is extraordinary. It's a little bit rich. I see the member for Bowman is leaving the chamber now. Oh, no; we welcome his return—thank you very much. He had much to say, but his complete lack of understanding for cost-of-living pressures on the Australian people, his lack of understanding for the amount of work and competency levels on this side of the House, when it comes to the Australian healthcare system, is extraordinary. This is the party that created Medicare. It's the only party that protects Medicare in this House. It's the party that will defend Medicare until our dying days. So, thank you, Minister—sorry, you aren't a minister.

Andrew Laming (Bowman, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm a recovering minister.

Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Why aren't you a minister? That's possibly another question, but I'll come back to that! Members on this side of the House understand clearly why it is that this government can't be trusted with Australia's healthcare system—but so do the Australian people. They are totally onto you guys.

As part of the Medicare task force, the member for Macarthur and I have travelled far and wide across Australia. We've heard from people in Braddon who cannot access affordable health care in their electorate. They can't find a specialist. Talking about out-of-pocket expenses, try being somebody living in Braddon, with no access to specialist care—the closest one is in Melbourne—and being told to fly yourself and your family up to Melbourne, to put yourselves up for the night, to take the family with you, to take days off from your job. These guys here think that's okay. They think that this is an acceptable state of affairs for health care in Australia. There is nothing acceptable about subjecting your citizens to second-rate health care.

It's all right if you're living on the North Shore of Sydney. There are plenty of bulk-billing doctors there. Come over to my electorate in Newcastle. You don't get a bulk-billing doctor there. We have the member for Herbert and the member for Longman—plenty of people on this side of the House—who are fierce advocates for the retention of a universal healthcare system in this country. Their electorates are hurting badly because the guys opposite have not lifted a single component of that Medicare freeze to relieve the burden on Australian consumers.

Susan Lamb (Longman, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

40,000 people at Caboolture Hospital!

Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yes; 40,000 people at Caboolture Hospital. We also visited the electorate of Lindsay—and the member for Macarthur will remember this well—where the Nepean Hospital is crying out for support and assistance. You haven't even begun to assist with the forward planning for a hospital that is in a rapid growth corridor there. It is already stretched to the limit right now. It can barely cope with the ongoing demand now. It's in the middle of a growth corridor, yet there's absolutely no assistance there.

Your lack of vision, your lack of planning, for public hospitals in Australia is astonishing. Nepean Hospital isn't exceptional. That's the sad story. What's going on at that hospital is being repeated across Australia. Our major public hospitals are stretched to the absolute brink. Elective surgery waiting times have skyrocketed. Emergency departments are struggling and, worst of all, patients are suffering. We know that because we are actually out there talking to people who use this healthcare system every day, and for members opposite to suggest otherwise is truly astonishing. What a hide!

When it comes to private health insurance, we can only say that members opposite must live in some other, parallel, universe. If you are not getting the message that the Australian people do not see value for money in private health insurance these days, if you are not hearing the message that they are finding it very difficult to accommodate the almost $1,000 per annum increase in premium fees that has come in under the Abbott-Turnbull government's watch— if you are not getting that message—then you need to see your GP for an ear check, quite frankly. That's what you need. It is only Labor that will defend Medicare. It is only Labor that can be trusted to achieve an Australian healthcare system that is fair and accessible to all.

Mark Coulton (Parkes, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! Before calling the member for Boothby, I might remind the member for Newcastle that she should speak through the chair, and the Deputy Speaker is not responsible for all the healthcare woes of this country.

Nicolle Flint (Boothby, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today's matter of public importance is yet another example of an attempt by those opposite to mislead the Australian public on health care. But the figures speak for themselves. The Turnbull government's policies are having a real and tangible impact on the cost and accessibility of health care for each and every Australian.

I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate and thank the Minister for Health for his incredible commitment and hard work in this area, which is making a positive difference for the residents of my electorate of Boothby and for all South Australians—for my home state of South Australia. Under the Turnbull government, we have achieved record bulk-billing rates by GPs of 85.9 per cent. This means that residents in my electorate of Boothby can visit their doctor without any out-of-pocket costs. This is thanks to the introduction of an additional 22,000 GP services in my electorate alone. In addition, the coalition government has added more than 1,500 new and amended medicines, worth $7.5 billion, to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, which means greater access to medicines for those who need them most.

We are tackling serious and common health problems in our society. We recognise that one in five Australians experience mental health problems each year, and so we are increasing mental health funding to around $4.3 billion this year. We have also committed more than $685 million over four years to reduce the impact of drug and alcohol abuse, which, unfortunately, has reached epidemic levels in some areas of my home state of South Australia.

Federal funding for public hospital services under the coalition has increased from $13.8 billion in 2013-14, at the end of the failed Rudd-Gillard-Rudd years, to a record $22.7 billion in the years 2020-21 under the Turnbull government. This is a 64 per cent increase in funding. This means more doctors, more nurses, more surgeries and less wait times in hospitals across Australia, but particularly in my electorate of Boothby, at Flinders Medical Centre, which is in Bedford Park in the heart of my electorate.

Just last week, the Minister for Health announced record funding for hospital services at COAG. The minister committed to providing an additional $30 billion for public hospitals, which will provide almost $128 billion over the five years from 2020. But apparently this wasn't enough for the Premier of South Australia. So I just want to touch on what the Weatherill state Labor government has done, in contrast to the Turnbull government.

The Weatherill Labor government in South Australia cut funding to the health budget. They cut funding in South Australia by $7.4 million for our hospitals between 2015-16 and 2016-17, and they cut $20 million of funding for hospitals between 2014 and 2016.

We know where some of these cuts came from—and I know all too well, because they shut down the repat hospital in my electorate. This iconic hospital, which was purpose-built for our returned service men and women, which has been a wonderful community hospital as well for so many of my residents and their families, has been shut down by the Weatherill Labor government. It is truly one of the most disgraceful decisions the Weatherill Labor government has made, and it has contributed to the loss of 160 hospital beds in southern Adelaide. This affects each and every one of my residents in Boothby and their families.

In contrast, the coalition government is not just funding bulk-billing and the PBS and hospitals and mental health services; we are also funding medical research and treatment. We're funding the Southern Hemisphere's first proton therapy research centre, with cutting-edge cancer treatment that has the ability to deliver precise radiation to destroy tumour targets and save organs. We're funding 17 separate grants and scholarships worth $21 million in my electorate of Boothby for medical research to address key national health priorities, such as the devastating eye disease glaucoma which affects more than 300,000 Australians.

I'm very proud to have worked with the Minister for Health and the member for Forrest, in Canberra, to recognise and respond to the challenges faced by the one in 10 women who suffer from endometriosis. It's a terrible disease that for too long women have suffered from in silence, and I'm so proud that we're developing a national action plan and funding research into this. It's policies like these that make a real difference to peoples' lives—policies that this government is funding and delivering. (Time expired)

Mike Freelander (Macarthur, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member on the other side for mentioning my name. I don't know why he's obsessed with me but it's probably just—

Craig Laundy (Reid, Liberal Party, Minister for Small and Family Business, the Workplace and Deregulation) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We like anyone from the Western suburbs!

Mike Freelander (Macarthur, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Me too. I thank the member for Ballarat for her matter of public importance and it is really something that's very important to me and it's been the basis of my career. The real problem is that the Liberal-National Party does not understand health care. It's a fundamental failing over decades. They have done some good things in health, I don't deny it, but their understanding of the system and what we should be doing in health care in Australia is sadly deficient.

The growing issue of accessibility to care and to our healthcare system and the inability to change what appears, to me, to be a descent into a two-tiered American-style health system is something I see as a great tragedy in Australia and one of the main reasons I came into this place. For many years the gap in health care has been widening between those who can afford it and those who can't afford it. We're entering a system that Medicare was designed to avoid, and now it's really your credit card that determines the quality of health care you can get in Australia. This government doesn't seem to bat an eyelid at this.

We're now seeing the continuation of the Medicare freeze with rebates for GPs, specialists and allied healthcare services all continuing to be frozen. Today we heard from the Rural Doctors Association of Australia that this is having a real effect on the health care that they can provide to rural Australians and their ability to attract doctors and allied health professionals to the bush. Rural doctors are struggling to maintain bulk-billing because of increasing costs, yet this government is doing very little. We're seeing waiting times for elective surgery in my electorate increase—waiting times for things like cataract surgery are now over one year. Someone who's going blind from cataracts has to wait over a year to get proper treatment. People who can afford it can get treatment within a week. It's a shame. This government does not understand that the more money you cut from preventive health care, the more you spend on repairing the long-term damage.

The government is more than happy to allow private healthcare providers to consistently increase their fees without adequate reasons and without adequately understanding the lack of transparency and the poor services offered by private health insurance. Private health insurance costs have increased by 27 per cent in the last five years, and the government is set to increase the costs even further, while delivering tax cuts for big business. We now see people—and I've had personal experiences—put off visits to specialists and subspecialists. To see a cardiologist and get an ECG and a cardiac ultrasound, the gap can be up to $500 for some people, and for many pensioners this is beyond their means. We're now seeing that sickness and lack of healthcare insurance was the primary cause of non-business-related personal insolvency in 2016-17. It's an absolute shame.

This government doesn't seem to worry about the stagnation in personal incomes, yet it allows continued increases in private health insurance. Not only has the wages share fallen to an all-time low, but the profit share of private health insurers has climbed to an all-time high. Yet that doesn't seem to be a problem.

There are a couple of things I'd like to mention quickly. This government does not understand health care. At the beginning of this parliament they sold off Australia's central cancer registry. We know that data in health care is the new gold, and yet the government sold it off without any transparency and without adequately informing the parliament.

I have letters from many people, including one of my colleagues. One colleague has written to me today, saying: 'There's a crisis in accessing allergy treatments in our public hospital system'—a crisis, and yet this government ignores it. The primary problem is that the National-Liberal government does not understand health care. It is a great shame. It is increasing the costs for all Australians. (Time expired)

Rowan Ramsey (Grey, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I sometimes think those opposite are living in a parallel universe. Yesterday I made some comments in this House that upset some people—that if a lie is repeated often enough people start to believe it. That's what is happening from that side of the chamber. It is a fact that the federal government is creating a new record for health spending every year—a new record every year! A new record is not a decrease in funding; it is an increase in funding. The member for Ballarat and the member for Macarthur, who's just leaving the chamber, rattled on about the Medicare freeze. I think it was called the government's Medicare freeze. Those of us who've been around a little while will well remember that it was the opposition's; it was the Labor Party's Medicare freeze. They say that we wouldn't have continued it, but they did not allow for it in their forward estimates in their budgets in 2013. No kind of alteration to the Medicare freeze was to be seen over the next four years. This government has moved to end the Medicare freeze. It'll end on 1 July.

I'll touch on bulk-billing here, because this is related to the Medicare freeze. I took some flak at the last election from some doctors within my electorate who were talking about how the Medicare freeze was affecting them. But the counterargument always is that the bulk-billing rate keeps rising—82.2 per cent when we came into government and 85.9 per cent now. In fact, in my electorate it's 86.4 per cent. So, 86.4 per cent of the consults that GPs are dealing with in my electorate are at no cost to the consumer, because they're bulk-billed. You can't just wash that away. Yes, the government has heard the doctors' calls, and we are lifting the freeze. I think a bit of credit should be given for the way this has been handled.

In South Australia, since this government came to power the coalition has increased hospital funding every year. In fact, in the last Labor budget—the last budget of the member for Lilley—it fell. Commonwealth support for hospitals in South Australia fell by 0.5 per cent. Since then, it has risen by 31.6 per cent through to this year, with another 8.6 per cent to come over the next two years. In total, there has been an increase of a little over 47 per cent since this government came to power. A 47 per cent increase is not a cut. It is not a devaluation. It is well in front of the CPI. It's in front of health CPI. This is a significant increase—a significant increase!—in funding. Strangely enough, it seems that our premier thinks he's awash with money, because he's knocked back another $1½ billion that was offered by the federal government.

We know why. Things get a little bit funny around here when there's a state election. We know why. It's because it has become Premier Weatherill's MO to blame the Commonwealth for everything he has mismanaged within the state, whether it be electricity or whether it be schools funding. We're reaching record levels there, and apparently the Commonwealth has somehow sinned. He goes on to blame the Commonwealth for things he has mismanaged. So he's spoiling for a fight with the Commonwealth right now. He's spoiling for a fight over hospital funding, but he's got no grounds on which to make that fight, because the minister has offered an extra $1½ billion. That's what he's knocking back. It should be exposed for what it is.

We know what they're doing to hospitals on my patch, in the electorate of Grey. I've been to a number of public crisis meetings in Quorn, Yorketown and Jamestown, where the state government is no longer investing in small rural hospitals. They say, 'No, we don't withdraw services,' but they will not invest in their operating theatres and they will not invest in their sterilising equipment. When it's no longer up to scratch, they say, 'Well, we can't continue that service in your hospital, because your equipment is not up to scratch.' It is the long-term plan to disinvest in these rural hospitals so that they can shunt the people out of them—close them down in the communities. They don't believe in rural South Australia. They should be exposed for it.

Madeleine King (Brand, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Like my fellow members who have spoken before me, I am proud to stand in this place as a member of the Labor Party to defend the Australian healthcare system from this Liberal-National government. We are the party of Medicare and we always will be. Unlike the rabble on the other side of the chamber, who attack Medicare and who fail to care for our public health system, you can rest assured that the Labor Party always will care for our public health system. Make no mistake, our healthcare system is under attack. Every day, more and more Australians are feeling the pain as they continue to take out their wallets again and again to cover the increasing costs of keeping themselves healthy, fit and active.

This government, despite the Prime Minister's insistence on using a scalpel rather than a sledgehammer, is smashing the institutions that have become the bedrock of the high living standards that we are fortunate enough to enjoy in this country. Let us go through some of the issues the Turnbull government has failed to address. The out-of-pocket costs to see a GP have never been higher. Since the Liberals came to power in 2013, and until last year, Australians have seen out-of-pocket costs soar from over $28 per visit in 2013 to over $35 in 2017. That's a lift of over $7, and that's still rising. In WA alone, costs have increased from nearly $31 in 2013 to nearly $38 in 2017. Some may scoff—'What's $7, anyway?' Tell that to some of the elderly residents in my electorate. They need constant care and check-ups, on a tiny pension that barely covers rent, electricity and all of their medical fees. Tell that to single parents on Newstart or disability support who are trying to care for their sick children at the same time as putting them through school. This government has no plan and it simply cannot be trusted on health and health care.

Australians needing elective surgery have had their waiting list times blown out. Emergency departments and hospitals around the country are bursting at the seams and health professionals are stretched to do more and more with less and less because of the Liberals cuts and their empty promises. If you need more proof, let's take a look at Medicare. The Prime Minister is still yet to remove a single part of his Medicare freeze. Rebates for GPs, specialists and allied health services all remain frozen. We are told that the freeze will be lifted in 2020—well, I certainly wouldn't hold my breath on that. As a result of the continued freeze, the Prime Minister is using a chainsaw to cut $2.2 billion out of Medicare on top of the savings he has already listed. This is a collective $2.2 billion out of the pockets of patients every time they visit a GP, visit a specialist or receive a Medicare allied health service. I, too, heard the rural doctors today tell members, many of us in the House from this side of parliament and from the other, how failing to lift the GP Medicare freeze has greatly affected access to basic healthcare in rural areas—and we have the Nationals here, who pretend to care for those in regional and remote areas.

Let's look at the Liberals' record on private health for a moment. Let's face it, everyone in this place and around the rest of the country knows that this government would rather protect the profits and corporate interests of the private health insurers rather than going in to bat for Australian consumers. They'd rather protect the $1.8 billion of pretax profit for private health insurers than help Australian consumers. The Public Health Association of Australia have said as much:

Scare tactics by the Private Health Insurance industry … should not be surprising. However, they should be rejected out-of-hand. The focus of this industry is on profits and return to shareholders rather than the health of all Australians …

I think that sums up this government's position. Premiums are on the rise. Since the end of 2013, when the Liberals were elected, premiums have risen a whopping 27 per cent, including the rise that's due this year, adding up to an average increase of $1,000 to the private health bill of Australian families.

Just as this government fails to do anything about housing affordability, they are making the same mistakes with private health. I will reflect on health for a moment. We all know that housing is critical to health. At a time when we reflect, all of this week and last week, on our collective failure at closing the gap between our first nation people, and also reflect on the health effects that the stolen generation have suffered, this government has cut funding to the National Partnership Agreement on Remote Indigenous Housing.

Justine Keay (Braddon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Shame!

Madeleine King (Brand, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is a shame. This means that remote communities, Indigenous communities, across the remote parts of this country, in northern Australia, north-west Australia, northern Queensland and the Northern Territory, will be without adequate housing. How can people be healthy when they're homeless? Under Labor, we will keep Medicare and reverse the damage done to it by the government. We'll put money back into the hospital system and keep waiting times down. Labor is the only party you can trust on health care.

Ann Sudmalis (Gilmore, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm pretty easy to get along with most of the time, but the talking points a couple of members on the other side have been given are quite deceptive. One spoke of the increases in doctors' fees, quoting the amounts but forgetting that the rebate is above the quoted fee. So, with bulk-billing, the people actually get their money back. Australians are the beneficiaries of huge investments by our government. How else is it that bulk-billing rates have increased so much, with the rate now at 85.9 per cent, compared with Labor's level of 82.2 per cent? There have been millions of dollars of bulk-billing for GP visits and specialist visits, especially in the regions.

We plan to invest an extra $2.8 billion in Medicare over the next four years. Labor say we're going to reduce the private healthcare costs by putting caps in place. I don't get it. That simply isn't going to happen. If the private healthcare people can't put their fees up, there will be fewer services. It's kind of logical. Labor say they'll save Australian families around $340 a year with such a cap, but most people seem to think that around a dollar a day is worth investing in their own health. They absolutely do. It's not the full amount, of course. It is the difference in the proposed increase to the one Labor suggest. It is really laughable. Labor never managed to keep the increases so low. Each and every year they were in government, the cost increased more than the 26 per cent in total that we're supposed to have had.

One of the incentives to be reviewed by Labor is the rebate, but we really need to get people to seriously consider hospital and extras cover. There is constant criticism of profit making. No matter what it relates to, it is seen as a problem for Labor. But while they whinge about private health insurance company profits, AHPRA has stated this is not a relevant factor. Higher claims costs are the driver of increased premiums, not profit levels. Do we really want longer waiting times in public hospitals while private beds are vacant? It's absolutely ridiculous. In addition, the private health insurers have come to the negotiating table and now there's encouragement for young Australians to take up insurance with a discount for 18- to 29-year-olds of up to 10 per cent on their premiums. That is better cover for mental health. There's provision for travel and accommodation. Comparing one fund against another will be much easier by having standardised definitions of gold, silver, bronze or basic. That will definitely help consumers. Small health insurers do not have massive profits, yet they are determined to provide as much assistance as possible.

The premise of today's question was related to making health care less affordable and accessible. We've increased hospital funding from $13.8 billion back in 2013-14 up to $22.7 billion proposed in the 2020-21 year. That's a huge increase. But, most importantly, ask any of the families who have a child with type 1 diabetes how their lives have changed because of this government's investment in constant glucose monitoring devices. Ask the families of those affected with multiple sclerosis now that Ocrevus is on script, saving them $35,000 a course. Ask those patients suffering multiple myeloma getting carfilzomib on script, saving $38,500. How about those families with leukaemia who can now get Imbruvica on script instead of $180,000 per course? There are 920 such families. Ask the cancer patients who have positive non-small-lung cancer and it metastasises or who have renal cell carcinoma. Each one of those are getting cancer treatments on script. I personally am proud of these financial allocations for these afflicted families.

Finally, some of the Labor representatives are calling out the lack of vision and planning for new hospitals. Last time I read the rules, the state and territory governments were responsible for that—the planning, the siting, the building, the staffing and the maintenance. The contribution of the federal government is determined by the hospital funding agreement reached at COAG, when they all sit around the table and do a bit of argy-bargy about who does what. But they build them; they look after them.

This financial year alone we are increasing funding so much and making such a big difference. Over the next five years we'll be investing more than $103.1 billion. In anybody's book, even if you're not too sure about where billions are sitting amongst millions and trillions, billions are a huge amount of money. We're doing well.

Mark Coulton (Parkes, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The discussion has concluded.