Page 3283 - Week 12 - Thursday, 19 November 1992
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MRS CARNELL: I am coming to that, Mr De Domenico. You must understand that the additional funding is distributed over five or six years and between six States and two Territories. Under the so-called bonus pool, three States will actually lose money. Over five years, the bonus pool includes about $1.6 billion to be allocated according to patient mix. Victoria and New South Wales, which have relatively high numbers of private patients, will lose under these agreements. I am also reliably informed that the ACT also is set to lose under this so-called bonus pool.
Mr De Domenico: How much?
MRS CARNELL: About $1m, Mr De Domenico.
Mr Kaine: Another $1m blow-out in the health budget.
MRS CARNELL: That is not all we will lose, Mr Kaine. I am coming to that. The answer to the question of whether the ACT is one of those States or Territories which will gain is categorically no. New South Wales Health has done an analysis on the net costs and benefits of the new Medicare packages. Their results will shortly be presented to the Senate Standing Committee on Community Affairs. The results of this New South Wales Health Department study show that many States and Territories will be substantially worse off under the new Medicare agreement. They would be better off staying under the present arrangements, unacceptable as the present arrangements are.
I am also reliably informed that the study shows - wait for this - that the ACT Government will lose $21m over the five years of the new agreement. We will even lose $4m in the first year of the new agreement. Yet Mr Berry seems totally keen on signing this new agreement. How absolutely ridiculous! Mr Berry is eager to sign up the ACT to lose $21m. Mr Berry should be called the Minister for walking the gangplank rather than the Minister for Health. These losses are the difference between what we would end up with if the additional funding from the rise in the Medicare levy were distributed according to the present Medicare system and what we will end up with if the new agreement, in its current form, goes ahead.
There is another way to look at it. Let us examine where the funds come from in the first place. The increase in the Medicare levy from 1.25 per cent to 1.4 per cent means that ACT residents will be contributing an extra $9m in the first year of the agreement. This money from ACT pockets is going, of course, to the Federal Government. The question is: How is the Commonwealth going to distribute this money? You can bet your bottom dollar that this money is not coming back to the ACT. Of the $9m extra that the ACT will be contributing - that is $9m out of ACT residents' pockets - only $1m will be coming back to the ACT. This means a net loss of $8m to ACT taxpayers in the first year of the agreement. Over the full five years of the agreement, the net loss to the ACT will be in the order of $42m. That is $42m paid by ACT taxpayers which will be lost. Yet Wayne Berry wants to rush into signing this agreement. Maybe Wayne Berry should not be the Minister for Health but the Minister for destroying health. Just like lemmings, Mr Berry wants to take ACT Health over the cliff. Whichever way you look at it, the results are bad for the ACT. Whether we are looking at the $21m or the $42m, it is certainly a loss. As I said, all these results are contained in an analysis prepared by the New South Wales Department of Health, and I am sure that if the Minister wanted to avail himself of this information they would be more than pleased to help him.
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