Dr Kerryn Phelps, AMA President, Parliament House, Canberra
PHELPS: We are here today for a round of important meetings, prior to the Federal Budget. We will be pressing the Government for commitments to Medicare, particularly in relation to funding of the Relative Value Study (RVS). We'll be looking for some changes to the tax laws so that we can facilitate structured settlements. We'll be looking for greater funding for the public hospital system and we'll also be looking for better funding for indigenous health and for tobacco control.
JOURNALIST: Do you think that the Government will take your Budget Submission and actually use it?
PHELPS: I think the Government realises that health is going to be a major issue at this upcoming election - that the Australian people are expecting support for Medicare. It's what the medical profession in Australia wants, it's what the Australian public expects, and it's what they expect from their government.
JOURNALIST: How much more money would you like?
PHELPS: We will be looking at increased funding of the order of $2 billion to get Medicare back on track. It's been allowed to disintegrate over the last 10, 15, 20 years. It hasn't kept up with inflation. It hasn't kept up with the increased cost of providing medical services, and we have a fully costed Budget Submission, which will layout all of the requirements for the upcoming Budget and for the Australian health system. We will be looking at $1.5 billion for the RVS, and we'll be looking at about $186 million for tobacco and other drugs funding. Similarly, we'll be looking at some savings from issues like medical indemnity changes.
JOURNALIST: Medicare seems, though, to be less of a concern for the Federal Government than trying to fix the private health system. Is that an ongoing concern?
PHELPS: There have been some important advances, I believe, in the last year, particularly with relation to supporting the private health insurance industry. The reason that that's been important is that it has the potential in the medium to long-term to take some pressure off the public system. But, that doesn't mean that we can turn our back on the public hospital system. We do need to see, as the Senators found, an extra $450 million per year over the next two years, with half of that contribution coming from the States, in order for the public hospitals to keep their heads above water. They've been really struggling.
JOURNALIST: What are the repercussions if the Government doesn't do this? Budgetary restraint is, obviously, the word of the day, and is something that the Government is trying to adhere to.
PHELPS: Budgetary restraint was the word of the day until we heard that there was enough in the Budget to have a three cent per litre drop in the price of petrol because that was an electoral issue. We're saying that health is important to the Australian public. It will be an election issue, and if there is money in the Budget to make a significant drop to the petrol prices in Australia, then there is money in the Budget to be able to look at looking after our public hospitals and our Medicare system in a better way than it is now.
JOURNALIST: There's not much left of the surplus. They'd want to make sure that surplus stays and they are spending money on petrol. Do you think there is enough money to put into health?
PHELPS: I believe that there is enough money to put into health. I think it's an essential priority. We have got to look after our health system to take us into the future. If things keep going the way they are going now, we are not going to have a universal health insurance access for the next 10 to 20 years.
JOURNALIST: Are you concerned that Fels took more time to actually sit down and write down a confirmation of where the medical profession stood with relation to the Trade Practices Act rather than briefing the media all of the time, then we would probably get to the answer that we're after.
At the moment, we have very serious concerns, which Mr Anderson has now taken up on behalf of rural doctors, particularly with relation to doctors being able to work rosters to be able to cooperate on weekend rosters, after-hours rosters. That, at the moment we are being told, on paper, from the ACCC is against the Trade Practices Act. Now, that is going to drive doctors out of rural practice, and out of a lot of other types of practice where there are not so many doctors who are able to do that sort of work. Now, we need to get that assurance in writing, and we will be speaking to the Prime Minister about that today.