AMA Transcript - Medicare cuts and the freeze to indexation

BRIAN OWLER: All right. Well, good morning. I've been talking to the Senate Committee on Health, in relation to the events of the past eight months since the last Federal Budget, over both the first co-payment proposal but also the second proposal, and what has been happening from here. So I've been speaking, obviously, with the Minister in recent times. She's embarked on the process of consultation, which appears to be constructive, and that's something that we welcome. But of course we still have issues that are on the table, such as the five dollar cut to the rebate and the freeze to indexation. So I'm happy to take questions, obviously you’ve been listening to what I've been saying to the committee, but happy to take questions on that.

QUESTION: You spoke about consultation - given the current leadership crisis, do you think a change of Prime Minister would be beneficial to the AMA?

BRIAN OWLER: Look, I don't think that necessarily you need to change leaders. I think what has to happen is a change in process. I've said all along, it's not about who's delivering the message or how the message is being spun. Or even the policies. At the end of the day the problem has been the process. How you've gotten to those policies.

Because we could have told the Prime Minister and Treasurer, the Health Minister well before those policies were announced that they were going to meet, first of all, with opposition, but also that they were bad policy. They would have significant impacts on the viability of general practice, particularly in low socioeconomic areas.

And they would have devastating consequences for the health care of everyday Australians. And so what we need to see is not necessarily a change of leadership; what we need to see is a change in attitude and a change in process.

QUESTION: Do you think the Minister is wedded to the five dollar co-payment? Or do you think it might be dropped in the next couple of weeks before this eruption sort of happening at the moment?

BRIAN OWLER: Well, I think things are quite unclear, aren't they? I mean, we have a new Minister. These policies won't be policies of this particular Minister. I think this Minister needs to be given a chance to go through the process of consultation, which I understand she's continuing to do, even as we speak. But at some point in time the Government will need to determine whether it pushes ahead with the current proposals, not only the five-dollar cut to the rebate and co-payment, but also the freeze to indexation out to 2018. Which is just as big an issue for doctors, but also for patients, as the five-dollar cut.

QUESTION: Do you feel the change in Minister has been good for the AMA in the sense that she's been more responsive to the needs of doctors and more consultative than the previous one?

BRIAN OWLER: I think I've had more conversations and more meetings with the current Minister in a month and half than I had with the previous Minister over the last eight months or so. And so yes, it has been a good change. I think not only the AMA but every health group are pleased that we have a Minister that we can talk to, who wants to listen, is interested in people's opinions, and is accessible.

I think one of the tragedies of the past year is that this Government really has had no policies for health. All of the policies have been based on how much it costs to go and see a doctor, how much people are going to pay. They've been fiscal policies. None of the policies have been designed through - looking through the prism of health care policy, and we need to get back to discussing health care policy, and how we make this country healthier and safer.

QUESTION: Two backbenchers have used the co-payment policy to criticise the Prime Minister's leadership. Are you concerned that health policy is becoming a weapon in political games [indistinct] in its own right?

BRIAN OWLER: Look, I think the issues around the co-payment proposal and how it's been handled; the criticisms I think are probably fair. I went to the Prime Minister with the view that I thought the Prime Minister would be pragmatic about the co-payment proposal; that he would listen. And he appeared to do that. He asked us to go away and come up with an alternative proposal. And I've got to say, the AMA worked hard in coming up with a proposal. If there was going to be a co-payment, we wanted to make sure that there was going to be protection for vulnerable patients. We wanted to make sure that we weren't taking money out of general practice, but were actually investing in general practice.

We came up with something that I thought was a very reasonable plan. And yet the Prime Minister has never answered us, as to what his opinion is on the plan that he asked us to come up with. In fact, all we had was the previous Minister out there saying it was a cash grab by doctors. So I think there are fair criticisms of the way that this Government has handled not only the co-payment proposal but I think just health care policy in general. I mean, if we want a productive nation; if we want employment; if we want to drive business - we need an educated nation, but we need a healthy nation. And that's why health care is such an important policy area.

5 February 2015

CONTACT:        John Flannery                     02 6270 5477 / 0419 494 761