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“The scare tactics of the Australian Medical Association (AMA) about the decrease in private health insurance cover fails to mention that any decrease in private hospital work for its members means less money for them. Perhaps that underlies their tactics but it also clearly demonstrates that the AMA believes a safety net is all that most Australians deserve if they aren’t ‘good enough’ to have sufficient money to afford private health insurance (PHI),” said Dr Tim Woodruff, President, Doctors Reform Society.

“The AMA’s scaremongering tactics, suggesting that eg patients may not get radiation therapy for their cancer treatment, is unconscionable for an organisation which claims to be interested in patients but is in fact primarily interested in the profits for its private specialist members,” said Dr Woodruff. ‘If public patients cannot access public services but private patients can, it indicates a basic flaw in our health system which the AMA supports, ie that private health should be subsidised so that rich people can have better care than the rest of the population.”

“Public health insurance is what Medicare is based on: everyone pays through taxes and the Medicare Levy, and everyone has the right to access the care in public hospitals. The AMA wants a return to the past when public hospitals were for the desperate, private care was for the rich, and those in the middle went bankrupt trying to afford private care”, said Dr Woodruff.

“It also ignores the reality that when you are put in an ambulance, you will almost certainly finish your journey in a public hospital. Destroy the public system by spending much needed taxes supporting private hospitals, and your journey could well be an avoidable fatal trip. It’s worth remembering,” said Dr Woodruff, “that the victims of the Bali bombing, many of whom had PHI cover, were saved in public hospitals.”

What is the AMA interested in, the profits of its members and their rich patients, or the interests of all patients, even the 56% of Australians who can’t afford to see private specialists in private hospitals?”

The AMA wants second rate care in public hospitals for the desperate, first rate expensive private care for the rich, a continual struggle for those in between, and plenty of private work for its members.”

Dr Tim Woodruff
President
Doctors Reform Society

Dr Con Costa
Vice President
Doctors Reform Society

Dr Tracy Schrader
Vice President Qld
Doctors Reform Society

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