Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Health Administration) Share this | Hansard source

I note that the minister was not prepared to rule out health insurance premium increases as a result of this measure. He has not been prepared to rule out that premiums will go up as a result of this measure. I will just explain the very simple maths to the minister again. The minister said earlier that the Commonwealth expects to save $740.6 million by not having to pay the private health insurance rebate to those Australians the government expects to leave private health insurance. The Minister for Health and Ageing has said that these people are going to be the young and healthy, so there is nothing to worry about. But if it is the young and healthy, then this is only 30 per cent of the total funding that will walk out the door with the 500,000 people you expect to leave private health insurance. Those people will not only take the 30 per cent Commonwealth rebate away with them; they will also take their own 70 per cent contribution away with them. That is $2.5 billion walking out of that door, Minister, and you are saying it is just going to go up in the air somewhere? Are you saying to me seriously that there is not going to be an impact on public hospitals? Are you saying that there is not going to be an impact on private health insurance premiums? Where is that $2.5 billion going to come from? Do you expect a reduction in demand for hospital treatment? Surely not.

Not one single witness at the Senate inquiry said that they expected a reduction in demand for hospital treatment. Of course not; nobody does. But there is $2.5 billion walking out that door with the people you are driving out of health insurance as a result of this measure, and you have got absolutely no idea where that money is going to come from. I put it to you, Minister: it is going to be the states and the territories that are going to have to cop it on the chin. You are setting them up for failure. Pensioners and Australians earning less than $50,000 a year are going to be among 10 million Australians who will see five to 10 per cent additional increases in health insurance premiums as a result of this measure.

Let me go back to the advice provided by your very good friend and mentor, former Senator Graham Richardson. This is what he put in his discussion paper in December 1993. He came in as the new federal health minister at the end of 10 years of failed Labor health policy—Labor health policy that was based on the same ideological misguidedness as this legislation is today. His discussion paper said: ‘Declining rates of private health insurance membership have significant implications for the public system. As more people drop out of private insurance, the demands on the public system grow.’

This is a government that told Senator Siewert there would be no negative impacts. I understand where Senator Siewert is coming from, by the way. She has a particular view. She is not supportive of the policy framework that underpins private health, and she is very clear about that. At least she is honest about where she is coming from. She does not support the private health insurance rebate, she does not support Lifetime Health Cover and she does not support the Medicare levy surcharge. I can respect her position more than the position of the government. The government are trying to pretend, ‘Yes, we are committed to a mixed health system. We are committed to a strong private health sector,’ but they are doing everything to undermine it and weaken it and make sure that it falls over.

In the media today I read:

Greens health spokeswoman Rachel Siewert said the government had assured her party there would be no negative impacts on the public hospital system.

This is like saying, ‘Trust us; we are from the government; we are here to help.’ What sort of guarantees has the government actually provided to Senator Siewert to substantiate that commitment? This is just incredible. Two or three weeks ago Senator Fielding said that he was concerned about the impact of this measure on low-income families, pensioners, older Australians and people on low and fixed incomes. He said, ‘I want some compensation for them.’ But he has now just rolled over and abandoned lower income families, abandoned pensioners and essentially sidled up to the government in the name of an illusory surplus out of this measure which will not eventuate at all due to the reasons I have given.

Minister, you are quite right. Only the Liberal-National Party coalition is standing up for the 10 million people with private health insurance. Only the Liberal-National Party coalition is standing up for the one million Australians earning less than $50,000, whom you will force to cope with increased health insurance premiums or to go into the public hospital queues as soon as they can no longer afford those increased premiums that you are forcing on them. Minister, you are absolutely right: only the Liberal-National Party coalition is standing up for sound and good public health policy. Quite frankly, the more I ask you questions and the more that you are not able to answer them, the more obvious it becomes that the government still has not done its homework, is still flying blind, still does not know what the impact on public hospitals is going to be and still does not know by how much private health insurance is going to go up as a result of this measure. Quite frankly, within half an hour, this deal has been totally exposed as a complete fraud.