Page 944 - Week 04 - Tuesday, 30 March 1993
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Are the principles and commitments truly adopted with that clause in place? I think not. It would appear that Mr Berry is not really committed to the Medicare agreement at all. If he were, why would clause 6 exist? Perhaps he knows that under his leadership ACT Health could not possibly fulfil those requirements.
Another interesting thing contained in the principles is to "ensure that the community is aware of the range of health services that are available and that patients have information that is sufficient to enable them to make informed choices". Informed choices? Does that mean that people will be told that there are not enough beds and that there are 2,045 people on the waiting list? Will they be told that they have a 33 per cent chance of being on the waiting list for more than six months? Informed choices? What choice do the 2,045 people on the waiting list really have? Informed choices for what? Certainly not the choice to take out affordable private health insurance. I am pleased to see that commitment two states, in part, that ACT Health is "committed to making improvements in the efficiency, effectiveness and quality of hospital service delivery". I sincerely hope that the Minister applies that undertaking to his own performance in administering ACT Health.
Mr Berry has regularly stated that by signing the Medicare agreement early he got access to the hospital access program, the HAP funds, to address the waiting list problem before the other States had an opportunity to do so. Wrong again, Mr Berry. As Mr Berry is no doubt aware, the Prime Minister announced in early December that the 1992-93 HAP funds were available outside the Medicare agreement negotiations. So Mr Berry did not have to sign the agreement early after all. Since then Mr Berry has announced that the waiting list money would be spent on hiring two new surgical registrars and buying some new equipment. Unfortunately, none of these initiatives will make one speck of difference unless more operating time is available and more beds can be staffed to accommodate the extra patients. (Extension of time granted)
Madam Speaker, there is no doubt that the new Medicare agreement raises many questions, but it does provide some extra funds for ACT Health. Mr Berry must use this extra money to reduce waiting lists and to address the critical bed shortage. He now has no more excuses. Let us not forget that this extra money comes at a cost to Canberrans. The increase in the Medicare levy from 1.25 per cent to 1.4 per cent will cost ACT taxpayers as much as $10m annually. If you add to that the decreased revenue from private health insurers, the possible $21m starts to look less rosy. Of course, Madam Speaker, if George Gear, our new Assistant Treasurer, and Rosemary Crowley, the Minister for Family Services, get their way, the Medicare levy will double, costing the average Canberran many hundreds of dollars a year.
MR BERRY (Minister for Health, Minister for Industrial Relations and Minister for Sport) (9.17), in reply: Madam Speaker, I was most interested to note the absence of any debate about bulk billing and how, for 13 million Australians, the Liberals opposite support wiping it. I was also most interested to hear Mrs Carnell say that she supported Medicare, but I know that all they support is the name and the levy.
Mrs Carnell: That is not true.
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