AMA President, Dr Bill Glasson, Speech to the AMA NSW IBNR Rally, Sydney - IBNR tax a new and unjust tax on the health of millions of Australians

My fellow doctors...

It makes me proud to be your Federal President to see you out here so early in such numbers to fight the good fight.

Giving up your precious family and leisure time on a Sunday - a spring Sunday - is a huge sacrifice.

Your presence here today sends a clear message to the Federal Government.

You are angry.  Very angry.

Angry about the IBNR tax.

Angry about medical indemnity premiums.

Angry about how hard it is to be a doctor in Australia today.

Angry about how your patients are hurting.

Today we are sending an important message to our patients and our communities.

We want them to continue to have access to our services and our friendship.

We all want their health care to remain affordable.

None of us want to leave medicine.  None of us want to leave our patients, our towns, our suburbs, or our hospitals.

Our patients don't want to lose any of their doctors.

Family doctors are part of the glue that holds communities together.

We serve generations of families - grandma and grandpa, mum and dad, and all the kids...and their kids when they come along.

Doctors provide security and comfort and advice and friendship.

We develop partnerships with our patients.  As we help them, they help us.

But medical indemnity is forcing us all to consider our futures.

Medical indemnity wants to drive family doctors out of communities - out of small country towns, out of close-knit suburbs.

And the Government is accelerating that process by chasing doctors out of town with a brand new tax.

Slim Dusty - God rest his soul - lamented over the Pub With No Beer.

Well, I tell you, The Town With No Doctors is an equally dire prospect.

The IBNR tax is a blight on the Australian landscape.

It is Patterson's Curse.  It is Coonan's Plague.  But will it be Howard's End?

It is a tax on patients.

It is a tax on health care.

It is a tax that will rob communities of accessible and affordable medical services.

It is a tax that will chase doctors out of the profession...never to return.

It is a needless tax.

It is a tax that hurts patients, doctors and whole communities.

It is also a tax that has the potential to hurt the Government.

But the problem is much bigger than the IBNR tax alone.

The problem is so big it will hurt future Governments, future generations of Australians, and future generations of doctors...if we don't fix it now.

The problem is the medical indemnity system itself.

We have a system that is held together by glue and string and hope.

The IBNR tax won't fix the system.  Doctors know it.  The Government knows it.  The public is starting to understand it.

But the Government - through Health Minister Patterson and Assistant Treasurer Coonan - seems content to let the indemnity crisis fester.

Their rhetoric is all about defending the new tax.

Their rhetoric is all about greedy doctors.

Their rhetoric is insulting.  Insulting to doctors.  Insulting to patients.  Insulting to the poorest and the sickest in the community.

They never refer to patients.  They never mention access.  They never mention affordability.

They think bashing doctors and taxing patients will get them through the next election.

Well, they are wrong.

Australian voters do not want to lose more doctors from their communities.

Australian voters do not want to pay more and more for their health care and their kids' health care.

They have had enough.  We have had enough.

A new tax will not fix the gaping holes in our health system.

A new tax will not reduce patient gaps.

A new tax will not address the medical workforce shortages.

A new tax will not save Medicare.

This new tax has already eaten away Senator Patterson's Fairer Medicare package.

Yes, that's right, Patterson's Curse has cancelled out the Government's health policy for the next election.

We must keep fighting this tax right up to the wire.

To give in meekly will be an admission that medical indemnity is no longer an issue.

To give in meekly will be failing our patients and ourselves.

We can't give up.  We won't give up.

The Prime Minister, John Howard, must personally step in to fix this mess.

I know he knows that the IBNR tax is a big problem.

He knows that medical indemnity is a threat to equal access to affordable health care for all Australians.

He knows that the IBNR tax is a lit match under an electoral powder keg...ready to blow.

Health will be THE BIG ISSUE at the next election.

Voters will demand ACCESSIBLE and AFFORDABLE health services.

The IBNR TAX will destroy ACCESS and AFFORDABILITY.

The IBNR TAX is being taken from patients to repay an illusory debt.

It is a fantasy figure conjured by actuaries.

Once it is paid it will never be given back.

The IBNR problem would disappear if the Government adopted our recommendations.

• Include long-term care costs in the high cost claims scheme.

• The Government must fund indemnity liabilities beyond six years.

If they do these two things alone:

• It will fix the 'Blue Sky' issues.

• It will fix the death, disability and retirement issues.

• And it will fix the IBNR.

Do these things and the problem diminishes, disappears.

The Government must put responsible policies before new taxes.

Australia's medical indemnity system MUST be reformed.

We MUST have a long-term care scheme for the severely injured.

We MUST have consistent tort law reform across all States and Territories.

Medical indemnity premiums MUST come down.

If these measures don't work, we MUST bring in a new system.

For example, no tort law at all.

For example, a 'no fault' system.

A better system.

A fairer system.

A system the community can afford.

If we don't, there will be fewer and fewer doctors.

If we don't, patients will pay more and more for their health.

If we don't, Medicare will collapse.

We must make the Prime Minister listen and act.

He cannot ignore your presence here today and the effect it will have on the Australian public.

My friends, I thank you for being here today.

This rally is just the first step.

Next you must all contact your local MP and tell them your story and your patients' stories.

Ring, write, fax or e-mail the Prime Mister's office, Senator Patterson's office and senator Coonan's office.  All the numbers and addresses are available here today.

Then get your patients to do the same.

Tell them to lobby their local MPs.

Tell them to contact the Prime Minister, the Health Minister and the Assistant Treasurer.  Give them the numbers and the addresses.  Hand them out at your practice.

All of us - doctors and patients - must get our message out right up to election day.

We must get rid of this new tax on patients.

We must have an indemnity system that is fair and equitable.

We must keep our doctors in our communities.

We must make the Government do the right thing by our patients.

Your commitment is our strength. 

This is a fight we must win.

Thank you.