Page 448 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 24 February 1993
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Planning is also well under way for the introduction of case-mix systems to the hospital services. Case-mix is a critical factor in determining future hospital budget allocations, and ACT Health is committed to its introduction as a measurement tool to assist in achieving optimal resource management. An additional $250,000 has been made available, with a further $1.6m planned for next year. The recent negotiation of the Medicare agreement is a further example of how the ACT and the Commonwealth can cooperate to provide a public hospital system which guarantees access regardless of individual financial status.
This demonstrates how out of touch the Liberals are: I heard Mr Westende say that we ought to be forcing people into private - - -
Mr Westende: Encouraging.
MR BERRY: Of course, the way that he would encourage them is the same way that Mr Humphries would, and that is to shrink the public hospital system so that they had nowhere else to go and were forced - and that is what Mr Humphries was on about - to pay into expensive private health insurance and were forced into the private hospital sector. If members opposite had taken the time to read the Medicare principles which were in the legislation - - -
Mrs Carnell: Yes.
MR BERRY: I hear Mrs Carnell say that she has read them. That is very good. Up to yesterday she had not had the time, it appears. Access to public hospital services is to be on the basis of clinical need and eligible persons must be given the choice to receive public hospital services free of charge as public patients. So Labor will not be forcing people out of the public hospital system into the private sector; we will not be forcing people into the private hospital system with some sort of bodgie insurance arrangement. The Liberals are trying to pretend that they have some newfound commitment to social justice with their health policy when they say, "The rich should pay extra". They say those sorts of things. They do not care about the poor, because what they are doing is creating a double health system. The rich will always look after themselves; you do not have to look after them because they have enough already. It is the poor people who will suffer. They are the ones that are going to be forced into private insurance. They are the ones that will have to pay $100 a day if they are forced into a private hospital, even though they are privately insured.
So let us get to the bottom of these scandalous claims that are being made by the Liberals opposite. Rather than failing to confront the funding of ACT Health, this Government is well on the way to developing a system which will be a model for the rest of the country. The Federal Liberals provide a dramatic contrast; the community can expect a $17m cutback, as I have said, to Territory funding. As Mr Keating said, if Dr Hewson were to win the election, if you go to McDonalds, you are going to have to buy an extra one for Dr Hewson. If you go to the pictures, you are going to have to book an extra seat for Dr Hewson. All of those things are true. Dr Hewson and Mr Howard are bad news for ACT Health.
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