Transcript - Changes To Medicare Safety Net

It was an issue that we welcomed. We felt it would deliver to the Australian public on both security and affordability. The Australian public, in fact, liked it. Those young families with young children. Those elderly people with chronic disease. They liked it. They liked it to the extent in fact they voted for the Howard Government on it.

The Howard Government owes its position largely on its health policy and probably on its interest rate policy. And I feel that the public of Australia trusted the Government to keep that policy in place, because it was helping those who are most in need.

The announcement this afternoon - an announcement ahead of the May 10^th budget, to actually change the thresholds on that safety net comes to us as a great surprise. But more importantly comes to us, the Australian public, as a great disappointment.

Because I know that the young families out there that are struggling - struggling to meet medical costs, and who are relying on that safety net, as I said, to deliver security and affordability, now feel as though they've been cheated.

I asked the Australian Government, this current Government, to keep that policy in place. To let it run for at least 12 to 18 months longer, and to work out whether there was any inflationary pressures on the system or not. The reality is that medical fees have not gone up. The reality is that the $2 billion in out of medical pocket expenses, that you and I have been paying, year in year out for the last decade - decade or more - has been picked up by this safety net, and that was the purpose of it.

These are not new medical expenses. These are expenses that you and I have been paying. And so as I said, it's a great disappointment that - and I think very - a very preliminary assessment that the Government has given on the safety net, to suddenly claim it's blowing out - I don't believe those figures.

I don't believe those figures, and in a sense I know what out of pocket expenses - patients have been paying. And I know what this is delivering, as I said, to the average struggling family out there in those - those electorates.

QUESTION: How did the Government, then, get it so wrong that they're cutting back now, that it's still double the initial estimate?

DR GLASSON: The Australia - the - prior to the election this was supposedly a well-costed, well thought out initiative, they told us. They told us it was sustainable. And we went to the - we went to the election on - with those figures.

So you could argue were those figures rubbery? I don't believe those figures were rubbery. I believe that the figures that are being displayed are in fact not a blow-out. These are - these are expenses that were on the books already that were not being picked up by Medicare, that were being picked up by you, as far as your wallet was concerned.

And as I said, this is what the safety net was there for. It was there to help those who are most in need. And by raising the threshold, and you could argue raising it to $500 is not a huge amount - go and ask those small - those struggling families out there. Go and ask those families with two or three kids, with a house mortgage, trying to send the kids to school and having other - meeting other expenses, and ask them whether that will impact on them.

It will impact on them, I can tell you. And so I suppose my comment to the Government is I am very disappointed that they have really made a knee-jerk reaction - or knee-jerk decision on this safety net, because I feel it's the most important new initiative that this Government has put in place in Medicare in the last 30 years.

And I - as I said, to try and undermine the integrity, and undermine, I suppose, the affordability - or use the argument of affordability to adjust it at this stage, I think is very premature.

QUESTION: But do you think the Government realised before the election it was blowing out - well, they in fact acknowledge they today? One last one.

DR GLASSON: Well, look, I think patients will feel disappointed. I think patients feel disappointed that the Government did not allow the system to run for at least 12 to 18 months, so we get a better grasp of exactly what was blowing out where.

I think this is very premature. I think it's a knee-jerk reaction. I think it's a reversal away from good health policy. And I've been complimenting the Government for implementing it at the outset. And I've been supporting it along its way. I've been watching it very closely to make sure that it wasn't blowing out. I have been watching doctor's fees, and I can tell you that the medical profession has been very responsible. And I'm proud of them.

And the community out there has been equally responsible. And I think that the Government should have actually given the profession and the community sufficient time to allow this to evolve, and allow us to, you know, really objectively assess this in the sense of saying yes, this does need re-jigging or doesn't need re-jigging. But this is far too early and far too premature.

Thanks very much.