Page 455 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 24 February 1993
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Mr Berry: How much does it cost them for health insurance?
MR HUMPHRIES: They do not have to have health insurance. This is the point; they do not have to have it. It is their choice. If they want to take it out, that is fine. If they do take out health insurance there is a rebate to help them. The point is that under this system many more people will be taking out health insurance because of the incentives being offered. Those people will be using private health insurance when they need it, because that is the way in the present situation that they can get access to health facilities quickly, and that means that there will be less pressure on the public hospital system.
Mr Berry, of course, knows that his system cannot deliver at the present time. His system is typical of health systems across the whole country, particularly hospital systems, which simply are not able to cope. By Mr Berry's own standards his system has failed. When he was in opposition he said that waiting lists were a disgrace and bed numbers should be increased. Waiting lists have gone up since he became Minister again; bed numbers have gone down since he became Minister again. By his own standard, the health system has failed. What other test do you want to use? I invite you to nominate any tests that you applied while you were in opposition and we will judge the system now on that basis.
Mr Berry: Okay; we are treating more people.
MR HUMPHRIES: That is not the point, because those people are having to wait longer to get the service. There are more people in the ACT than there were at this time two years ago; of course you are treating more people, but it is taking longer to do it.
Mr Berry: The average length of stay has dropped.
MR HUMPHRIES: The fact that they are spending a shorter period in hospital does not prove that they are getting any better service. In many cases, I would argue that spending a shorter period of time in hospital is actually to their disadvantage. Some people actually gain some therapeutic value from being in hospital and sitting in a hospital bed for longer than they have been.
Madam Speaker, this Government uses rhetoric all the time which it simply cannot back up. Even in his last speech Mr Berry said, "No section of the population will be disadvantaged. The system is accessible to all". You go and stand in that waiting list and you say to people, "This system is accessible to all"; you will be torn apart. They will not swallow that garbage. Do not get indignant because I raise waiting lists. That was the test that you applied when you were in opposition and, by your own test, you have failed as a Minister.
The business rules are a convenient pretext offered by this Government to get them out of trouble. The fact of life is that they have dressed up supplementation in such a way as to get the Minister off the hook every time the budget blows out. That is what it amounts to. The business rules amount to: If you want more money, you have to ask very nicely and then you get it. That is what the business rules are all about. They are designed to make sure that this Minister never has to say, "Oh, I have had a budget blow-out". That is what it is all about. Mr Berry is very quick to quote Fightback when it comes to industrial relations; he has not been quick to quote it when it comes to health. I think it proves a very different picture to the one he puts forward.
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