Anika Wells (Lilley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to fight for an important health funding issue that is impacting Northsiders and the hospitals in my electorate of Lilley. In March 2022 the Morrison government is set to begin removing 400 medical devices from the Prostheses List without considering important stakeholder feedback, bypassing the clinical review process. The Prostheses List is a list of medical devices that private health insurers must pay for when they are using hospitals to treat a privately insured patient. The list gives doctors the clinical freedom to choose the best technology for each of their patient's needs. Once an item is removed from the Prostheses List, private health insurance companies do not have to pay for them. These radical funding cuts will leave hospitals in my electorate of Lilley faced with the decision of either absorbing the costs no longer covered by insurers, potentially threatening their financial viability, or passing the cost on to their patients as an out-of-pocket cost. On the cutting block is a topical adhesive which will set patients back roughly $200. A surgical adhesive that is set to be defunded will cost patients $170. Another topical skin adhesive with a self-adhering mesh will cost patients $580 out of pocket.

On the one hand, private hospitals in my electorate are in no position to absorb increased costs, particularly in the wake of the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has resulted in the most difficult 18 months experienced by the sector in living memory. On the other hand, the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority estimates that health insurance companies are sitting on a windfall gain of $1.8 billion due to the reduction in hospital claims during the pandemic. These private health cuts are just the latest of a long list of cuts the Morrison government has inflicted on our healthcare system. When the coalition first came to power in 2013, the average out-of-pocket cost to see a GP on the Northside of Brisbane was $27.61. Today, the average out-of-pocket cost in Lilley is $41. That is a 67 per cent increase during the term of this government. Back in July 2021, in the thick of the global pandemic, the Morrison government cut almost 1,000 MBS items from the general surgery list, a cut which directly impacted The Prince Charles Hospital in Chermside.

If these Prostheses List funding cuts progress, private hospitals will be forced to reduce or eliminate some of their services, especially in regional areas, or transfer these services to our already overburdened public hospitals. On behalf of North West Private Hospital, on behalf of Saint Vincent's Private Hospital Brisbane and on behalf of the hundreds of Northsiders who rely on affordable access to these devices, and will in the future, I call on the Morrison government to maintain the Prostheses List funding. I thank the House.