Page 3887 - Week 15 - Tuesday, 15 December 1992
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Medicare and the public hospital system guarantee treatment. In the private sector, you and your family are guaranteed treatment if you pay the $40 a week for top cover. That is what private health insurance is all about - making money out of health care.
The AMA's campaign in marginal seats to promote private hospitals is grossly irresponsible. Many people without access to all of the information stand to be conned by the AMA. You cannot ignore the majority of Australians who require a strong public hospital system - those who, after buying the groceries, clothing and school requirements and paying the mortgage, have little change left. They cannot afford to fork out $40 a week for hospital cover when Medicare is what they want and what they can afford. The ads and campaigns that use emotional blackmail are sickening, as treatment in our hospitals is guaranteed for people who need it.
The Liberals' position on health is just as sickening. Hewson wants to force 1.5 million people into top cover insurance. He wants to gut the public sector and transfer resources into the private hospitals. As Minister Berry said earlier, we need only to look at the Port Macquarie hospital in New South Wales. A referendum held by the local council resulted in an overwhelming No vote to the proposal eventually carried out by the New South Wales Government. This idea is not a new one, nor is it an idea that has received much support from people living under such a system. In the United States, President-elect Clinton has already stated that he is looking at options for a universal health care system. In fact, the US system, as it is, is the example often used to show how not to go ahead with health care. Hewson and the Liberals, including those sitting opposite, want to adopt the discredited United States-style system. Australians do not deserve a two-class hospital system - one well equipped for those with money and one run down and poorly financed for the less well off.
Madam Speaker, this MPI today is about the Liberals showing their colours. They do not understand the importance of Medicare. Their inflexible ideology says, "Force the people into private health coverage. The private sector does it better". Health care is about more than money. It is about providing accessible care based on clinical need to all Australians. Only Medicare can provide that.
MR KAINE (Leader of the Opposition) (4.35): Madam Speaker, I think it is quite clear that the Labor Party has lost the debate today hands down. First of all, we had the Minister with his usual mumbling speech that gave no facts but was based totally on ideology. He put nothing forward to justify the position his Government adopts. Because Mr Berry says it, we are supposed to believe it. Well, I do not believe it. I would have been more impressed if he had brought forward some real statistics to show how effective his hospital system is. We know and the people who use the hospital system in the ACT know that his hospital system is not effective. There are 2,000 people at least out there who know that when they want medical treatment and need to get into a hospital they cannot.
The Government was going to make a distinction about elective surgery. People who need an operation do not regard it as elective; they want to get their medical conditions fixed. For the Government arbitrarily to set up a waiting list and say, "You are not important because you are in for only elective surgery" is a cop-out. My position is that the length of the waiting list in our hospital system is a direct reflection of the failure of our hospital system to meet the needs of this community; it is the ultimate measure.
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