Kerryn Williams
When federal parliament resumes sitting in February, the government's Medicare Plus bill will be put to the Senate. Health minister Tony Abbott has declared himself unwilling to respond to the "wish lists" of those opposing the bill.
Medicare Plus is a revised version of the widely rejected Fairer Medicare package. It includes a few minor sweeteners, including a safety net for the poor whereby the government will cover a proportion of annual non-hospital medical costs above a certain threshold. However, the thrust of Medicare Plus is to complete the destruction of what remains of Medicare as a universal health insurance scheme and to replace it with a two-tiered health system.
Another addition to the new package is an increase from $1 to $5 per consultation in the incentive payment to doctors who bulk-bill patients with concession cards. This is much less than the fee above the Medicare rebate currently charged by most doctors who don't bulk-bill. The government has admitted that most doctors are unlikely to take up the incentive.
Medicare Plus also extends this incentive to children.
When the proposals were announced in November, the Australian Council of Social Service pointed out that this "will mean single people on as little as $340 a week will pay to see a doctor while the children of millionaires receive free consultations".
On January 19, Professor John Dwyer from the Prince of Wales Hospital and convenor of last year's Australian Health Care Summit told the Senate Medicare inquiry that the government should withdraw the bill. According to Dwyer, a new proposal needs to be drafted which doesn't require a safety net.
Following the inquiry, Greens senator Kerry Nettle called on the government "to withdraw the Medicare bill before parliament resumes and to develop a proposal that is founded on the principle of universal access for all Australians, not the further privatisation of health care".
Dr Margaret Perrott, the Socialist Alliance candidate for the NSW federal electorate of Throsby, told Green Left Weekly that the Medicare Plus proposals are a "bureaucratic nightmare, with nobody even sure who is eligible for the so-called safety net".
According to Perrott, the package will "pressure the minority of GPs who currently bulk-bill all their patients to join the majority and introduce fees 'for those who can afford them', just to cover operating costs".
"The government", she added, "should uphold Medicare as a universal health scheme and get rid of the inequalities of a fee-for-service system. We need more money for public health services of all kinds, instead of funding war, the conquering of space, and the profit-making private health insurance industry."
From Green Left Weekly, January 28, 2004.
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