AMA Federal Budget Submission 2002 - 03
AMA President, Dr Kerryn Phelps, said today that the AMA is once again calling on the Federal Government to fund the Relative Value Study (RVS) as the centrepiece of its 2002-03 Federal Budget Submission.
The RVS involves at least $1.6 billion in funding for the Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) to increase patient rebates to properly reflect today's real costs of providing quality medical services to all Australians.
In releasing the submission, Dr Phelps admitted the AMA knows there is no chance of the Government coming to the party on the RVS.
"On behalf of doctors and patients and the future of the Australian health system, the AMA is honour bound to keep promoting the virtues of the RVS," Dr Phelps said.
"If it had been funded in last year's Budget, many of the problems now besetting the new Health Minister - increases in private health insurance premiums, the medical indemnity crisis, increasing patient gap payments and declining bulk billing rates - may well be under control.
"In the absence of a Government commitment to the RVS, the AMA would like to see the Government move away from ineffectual though well-intentioned schemes like practice incentive payments (PIP) and disease-specific funding that try to steer GPs to treat certain patients.
"These schemes work against the broad skills of general practitioners, ignore the fact that patients who see GPs often have more than one condition, and represent an undesirable precursor to US-style managed care. In a tight budget, the money would be better spent elsewhere.
"The Government should immediately abandon its GP Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). It is divisive and wasteful.
"Instead, the AMA Budget Submission is all about shoring up the fundamentals, built around a properly funded MBS - a properly funded Medicare.
"We want to see GP services maintained at proper levels for all communities, urban and rural; adequate funding for public hospitals; and full delivery of election promises on aged care with further much-needed funding initiatives in this sector.
"More needs to be done on indigenous health, youth health, and better funding is needed for anti-smoking campaigns and programs to prevent alcohol, drug and other substance abuse," Dr Phelps said.
Dr Phelps said the AMA will be discussing its Budget Submission with the Health Minister and other Ministers in the lead-up to the May Budget.
CONTACT: John Flannery (02) 6270 5477 / (0419) 494 761