Page 1841 - Week 06 - Thursday, 5 June 2014
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The newer low-cost threshold will help more people and ensure that safety net benefits are available to people who have serious medical conditions or prolonged healthcare needs. As a further protection, doctors actually have the discretion whether to charge the fee or not.
So where does the money from the co-payments go? It is announced that for each $7 patient contribution $5 will be reinvested into the new medical research future fund. This will come from reducing the Medicare benefit scheduled rebates for these services by $5, and $2 will go to the provider. The medical research future fund will grow to $20 billion, the largest of its kind in the word, and the fund will facilitate Australia maintaining a world-class medical research sector with access to cutting-edge innovation and clinical breakthroughs in our hospitals, the underpinnings of the healthcare system of the future. The fund will provide significant new funding to medical research in addition to existing funding profiles.
Every dollar of the estimated savings from health reform in this budget will be reinvested in the fund until it reaches $20 billion. The fund is estimated to reach that target by 2020 and the capital base is set to be preserved in perpetuity. From 2015-16, the net earnings from the fund will serve as a permanent revenue stream primarily to the National Health and Medical Research Council. The fund will distribute around $1 billion a year to medical research from 2022-23.
The establishment of the fund ensures the government meets its commitment to maintain health investment while delivering a sustainable health system in the future. This investment, to be managed by the Future Fund Board of Guardians, will help ensure Australia can continue to advance world-leading medical research projects, attract and retain first-class researchers and deliver improved health and medical outcomes for all Australians.
The Medicare co-payment is a simple way, as much as some might not like it, to start to make Medicare more sustainable. Academics and economists have advocated the approach for many years. Let me quote:
At the heart of the problem is that in healthcare, as with other goods and services, free provision leads to overconsumption. As health researchers have shown, cost-less medical care means that people go to the doctor even when they don’t need to, driving up the cost for all of us.
As economists have shown, the ideal model involves a small co-payment—not enough to put a dent in your weekly budget, but enough to make you think twice before you call the doc. And the idea is hardly radical.
There’s a better way of operating a health system, and the change should hardly hurt at all.
Who was that from? That was from Andrew Leigh MP, the federal member for Fraser. My goodness me, a well-respected academic! I am sure Ms Burch and Dr Bourke would agree. He is Labor’s shadow assistant treasurer. Let us have a look at the SMH article of 2003 in which Dr Leigh was asked:
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