Doorstop - AMA President, Dr Bill Glasson, Brisbane - Medicare safety net

QUESTION:      Bill, first of all, the Medicare Plus, what's the AMA's take on that?

GLASSON:       Well look, Mr Abbott's come out this afternoon announced an extra $450 million into a $2.8 billion Medicare Plus package.  We obviously congratulate him on the amount of money that's going to the system.  

We would obviously... on the three elements of that package, first of all, the safety net proposal where there has been modifications as to the thresholds, such that a large percentage of Australians now will be protected by this threshold and the safety net.  He has our complete support, and I congratulate Tony Abbott for his diligence in pushing to try and get this through. 

On the second element, that's the allied health where money has been put into a series of allied professionals to support general practitioners, again it's going to be done through what they call this Enhanced Primary Care items, which are rather complex and they are full of red tape. 

My concern is that our GPs out there that are loaded up with patients haven't got time to be filling out more and more forms.  So I do wonder what impact that will have in the long-term.

On the issue of dentistry, which has been included, I congratulate the Government, in particular Mr Abbott, for including dentistry because again it's a very important area as far as the overall health of the Australian community.  We would like to have seen dentistry separated from these EPC items, but again it's something that I think we can work with the Government to make better before the next election.

On the third element, and that's the issue of the bulk billing, there's been a proposed $2.50 increase on top of the $5 already recommended for doctors that bulk bill in rural and remote areas and all of Tasmania.  Now, one could be cynical about to see why all of Tasmania would be included, but we won't go into that. 

I would like to make the point that if they go down the line of geographical rebates, in other words, differential geographical rebates depending on where you live, I do not think that is the way forward.  We feel that is unfair, that is unjust, and for people living in the metropolitan areas, and particularly outer suburban areas who cannot find a bulk billing doctor, it means they miss out on that extra rebate.

We would like to see that rebate addressed to your economic circumstances and not to where you live.  And so we made that point very clear during the week, and unfortunately the Government has taken it up on geographical lines.

The other point is, linking the increased rebate to bulk billing fails to address the issues of access and affordability.  We keep telling both sides of government that essentially you've failed to recognise a shortage of doctors in the system, particularly our general practitioners, and if you continue to link the increased rebate with bulk billing you'll have less and less doctors in the system. 

And so access and affordability, as I said, at the breakfast meeting last week in Canberra, are the two issues.  And we've... and I feel that linking this to bulk billing fails to address both those.

QUESTION:      The plan... moot plan anyway, they're talking about the Federal Government taking over the running of all of the hospitals in Australia, what does the AMA think of that?

GLASSON:       Well, I think it's a discussion the community has to have.  Obviously the rather complex system between the Commonwealth and state trying to run our public hospitals is expensive, it's bureaucratically heavy and it's not working. 

What we're finding in our public hospitals around Australia is that we cannot provide the services that our patients require.  And this increased rationing that we're having to do with very sick patients is unacceptable. 

So I think that we could save approximately $1 billion, and I'll repeat that, we could save approximately $1 billion having a single funder, whether that be state or the Commonwealth, whatever it may be, and that money could go into patient services. 

So I think that we have to talk about what is a most appropriate system, what can provide the most appropriate services to the... to rather a complex medical system and to an ageing population that Australia now finds itself.

QUESTION:      Thanks.

GLASSON:       Okay.

Ends