“The predicted budget increase in Medicare funded dental services will do almost nothing to improve the care of the hundreds of thousands in the community who face years long waiting lists to access proper dental care,” said Dr Tim Woodruff, President, Doctors Reform Society.

“Meanwhile the taxpayer funds full extras cover for those on salaries as high as the Prime Minister can get a 35% rebate on Blue Ribbon private health insurance cover and avoids paying 1% of his 2.5% Medicare levy”.

“Whilst the Federal Government claims that dental care should really be a State responsibility it manages to find over $400 million per year for the dental component of the PHI rebate,” said Dr Woodruff. “But it also forgoes many more millions per year in not collecting the 1% Medicare levy for high income earners who have private health insurance.”

“Private dental care is awash with taxes, but it’s almost all being spent on those rich enough to afford private health insurance extras. The paltry programme of dental care for the desperate funded through Medicare introduced several years ago has not worked and cannot work even if expanded,” said Dr Woodruff. “It is designed to have little impact because this Government does not believe it is responsible for the dental care of the majority of Australians. There are not enough dentists to do the work and the red tape and restrictions to accessing the Medicare payments ensure the programme’s very limited effectiveness.”

“This policy demonstrates the total disregard the Federal Government has for the health of all Australians, and the ideological obsession with promoting access to quality health care only to those who can afford it,” said Dr Woodruff.

This is credit card oral health and the Government should apologise to the 650,000 Australians languishing on public dental waiting lists, preparing their pureed food whilst the rich tuck into their T bone steaks.”

Dr Tim Woodruff
President
Doctors Reform Society

Dr Con Costa
Vice President
Doctors Reform Society

]]

“The report form the the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare released yesterday indicates that $1.7 billion are wasted every year treating patients in hospital who should have been treated better in the community,” said Dr Tim Woodruff, President, Doctors Reform Society. “The main cause for this wastage, the report claims, is inadequate care in the community.”

“This is a crushing indictment of the Federal Government which is responsible for the funding of and access to, general practitioner care throughout Australia,” said Dr Woodruff.

“For our patients this means unnecessary admission to hospital because they can’t get adequate treatment in the community eg in nursing homes”, said Dr Woodruff.

“In addition it means year long waits to get into public hospitals for elective surgery, and day long waits in emergency departments because patients who should never have needed admission are taking up a bed.”

“This puts a lie to the claim that public hospital problems are just a State responsibility,” said Dr Woodruff. “It’s time the Federal Government recognised that it is failing to deliver widespread accessible affordable general practitioner services to all Australians.”

Dr Tim Woodruff
President
Doctors Reform Society

Dr Con Costa
Vice President
Doctors Reform Society

]]

“Suggestions that the ALP is set to abandon a provision in its policy platform opposing growth in private care at the expense of the public system (SMH today) should be of great concern to the 56% of Australians and 65% of over 65 year olds who don’t have private health insurance,” said Dr Tim Woodruff, President, Doctors Reform Society.

“Whilst Australians’ use of private hospital care has been increasing since the introduction of the Private Health Insurance (PHI) rebate, the majority of Australians still need and want a public hospital system funded by both Federal and State Governments,” said Dr Woodruff.

“The suggestion for the ALP National Conference would appear to indicate that the needs of the majority of Australians are to be seen as less important than the needs of those lucky Australians who can afford private health insurance,” said Dr Woodruff.

My patients facing an eighteen month wait for surgery must wonder why their neighbours have the same operation within weeks, supported in their private hospital bed by taxpayer funded private health insurance, said Dr Woodruff. How does this fit with Kevin Rudd’s stated commitment to social justice? Our public system is clearly lacking in resources whilst over $ 2 billion of taxes per year are spent on private hospital care. Where is the Labor commitment to a public health system delivering quality health care to all, independent of capacity to pay”? said Dr Woodruff.

Dr Tim Woodruff
President
Doctors Reform Society

Dr Con Costa
Vice President
Doctors Reform Society

]]

“Medicare ‘safety net’ spending figures per electorate released yesterday by the Health Minister, Tony Abbott reveal a sorry tale suggestive of middle class welfare and pork barrelling,” said Dr Tim Woodruff, President, Doctors Reform Society.

“Most disturbing is the way the money is directed to those electorates which are the most socio-economically privileged,” said Dr Woodruff. “The top three electorates for safety net spending per voter are Wentworth, North Sydney, and Bradfield. They are also the top three electorates on the socio-economic rating scale. Thus in Sydney’s Bradfield at the top of the rating, the taxpayer pays $74 per voter but in nearby Fowler, the lowest ranking electorate, only $12 per voter is spent.

“Rural Australia is also the sad loser from the largesse of the ‘safety net’ as rural electorates constitute seven of the bottom ten electorates for ‘safety net’ spending,” said Dr Woodruff.

“Braddon, at the bottom of the pile, gets a miserly $1.41 per voter per year.”

“It is also of great concern that eight of the top ten electorates rated according to the amount spent per voter in the electorate are in Liberal held seats, such as Minister Abbott’s own seat of Warringah where $68 per voter finds its way from the taxpayer to help pay the medical bills of his voters.”

“This Government’s guiding spending principle in health seems to be that those with the least need get the most and those with the most need get the least. That’s the inverse care law” said Dr Woodruff. “Rather than calling on the Labor Party to endorse the ‘safety net’, the Government should be apologising to most Australians, particularly those in greatest need, for setting up such an inequitable scheme”.

Dr Tim Woodruff
President
Doctors Reform Society

Dr Con Costa
Vice President
Doctors Reform Society

]]

The report from the Australian Medical Association detailing the problems of the health system and of our public hospitals identifies many important issues and deficiencies, said Dr Tim Woodruff, President, Doctors Reform Society, but its stance is staggering hypocritical.

It is extraordinary that the AMA’s recommendations for support of the public hospital system ignores its own support for the private health industry and the income of its members to the detriment of the public hospital system, said Dr Woodruff.

The taxpayer funded private hospital system has expanded massively since the Private Health Insurance rebate was introduced, said Dr Woodruff. It costs taxpayers over $3 billion per year, just the amount the AMA suggests the public hospitals need and yet the AMA continues to support this gross misuse of taxes which expands the private system and drags doctors and nurses from the resource starved public system.

Additionally the AMA has supported the grossly inequitable Medicare ‘safety net’ which distributes taxes to specialists in the richest areas of Australia and fails to address the reasons for the need for such a ‘safety net’ ie the exorbitant out of pocket costs patients have to pay for health care. Since 1996 these out of pocket costs have increased by 50%.

It’s time for the AMA to come clean and admit that taxes used to promote the growth of the private health industry is in direct conflict with its claim that it wants a better public hospital system.

Dr Tim Woodruff
President
Doctors Reform Society

Dr Con Costa
Vice President
Doctors Reform Society

Dr Tracy Schrader
Vice President Qld
Doctors Reform Society

]]

“Another 4.5% rise in Private Health Insurance premiums announced by Health Mininster Abbott means another $110 million per year of taxes given to those who can afford PHI,” said Dr Tim Woodruff, President, Doctors Reform Society. “This is on top of the $2.5 billion already given.”

“Now over $400 million in taxes per year is being spent on private dental care for those rich Australians who can afford PHI extras, whilst the Federal Government refuses to fund dental care for the majority of Australians, many of whom are waiting up to 6 years for public dental care, eating pureed food without teeth.

“Added to that is the complete failure of the PHI rebate to affect waiting times at public hospitals or to make PHI more affordable: it has become less affordable every year since the rebate was introduced,” said Dr Woodruff.

“What has happened to the Government which was going to govern for all Australians?,” asked Dr Woodruff.

Dr Tim Woodruff
President
Doctors Reform Society

]]

The announcement of $34 billion in tax cuts by the Howard Government appears to miss the whole point that our patients and the people of Australia have been making for years, said Dr Tim Woodruff, President, Doctors Reform Society. They’re telling us that they want better services.

The idea that the public want a fist full of dollars has had its day, said Dr Woodruff. A fist full of dollars is useless in an overcrowded understaffed emergency department. It’s useless when there is no GP with the time to see you when you’re sick. It’s useless when there is no Aged Care place to suit your needs. And as private health insurance premiums continue to rise, it struggles to match those rises if you can afford the insurance in the first place.

If there’s that much money for tax relief why, after 11 years, are our patients spending nights in storage rooms in emergency departments, struggling to find and afford a GP especially after hours, with the time to give proper attention, struggling for 12 months in debilitating pain from an arthritic hip waiting for an operation.

This is a recipe for private affluence and public squalor. We hope they can do better very soon.

Dr Tim Woodruff
President
Doctors Reform Society

Dr Con Costa
Vice President
Doctors Reform Society

Dr Tracy Schrader
Vice President Qld
Doctors Reform Society

]]

A report from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare today reveals that the Federal Government’s percentage contribution to public hospital funding, has fallen from 45% of the total Federal and State expenditure, to 41% in the last 4 years,” said Dr Tim Woodruff.

This is further evidence of the Federal Government’s abdication of its responsibility to support public hospitals throughout Australia,” said Dr Woodruff.

Public Hospitals cannot provide adequate emergency services or other services if the federal government starves them of funds.
“The states have doubled their spending in response to increased demand”, said Dr Woodruff.

“The Howard government has not matched the States and has failed to respond adequately to that increased demand”.

Its time for the Federal Government to stop blaming and start paying!

Dr Tim Woodruff
President
Doctors Reform Society

Dr Con Costa
Vice President
Doctors Reform Society

]]

Today’s announcement by the Greens of a $4.3 billion investment in integrated primary health care (the out of hospital care that most Australians need), is a welcome change from the parsimonious approach of the current Government, said Dr Tim Woodruff, vice president, Doctors Reform Society .

The Coalition’s policy finds a paltry $21 million to do a tiny trial of integration but combines it with a freezing of the GP Medicare rebate which will make it harder for cash strapped patients to sign up to the trial. The Greens have already indicated that they support an end to that rebate freeze.

It is reassuring to note that Labor too, has rejected the rebate freeze and is keen to maintain or improve access by so doing. To date it has not indicated how it will address the major need for integrated primary care but it is reassuring to note that it was Labor that introduced Medicare Locals (now replaced by Primary Healthcare Networks) for the very purpose of facilitating integrated primary health care.

We await the Labor policy on primary health care with interest.

The Prime Minister’s assurance that he is not intending to privatise Medicare must be questioned. His policies are making it harder for our patients to get decent health care. Privatisation by stealth is here. He already plans to privatise the Medicare payments system. His claims simply do not ring true, said Dr Peter Davoren, President, Doctors Reform Society.

Our patients who are struggling to access best health care simply don’t seem to matter. Prime Minister Turnbull’s government has slashed funding for public hospitals, for dental care, and for access to both GPs and specialists. Whilst his stated intention is to retain Medicare he wants it to be a miserable safety net for the desperate and poor. We want it to be what it was intended to be, a health system for all, irrespective of wealth, credit card status, bank balance, and the like.

Many patients would struggle to afford the copayments he feels they should pay. People can wait for years for life changing surgery (eg joint replacements, cataract surgery) whilst those who can afford private health insurance have such surgery within months of needing it. Patients suffer because this Government wants to privatise and Americanise our health system so that a healthy credit card is the only requirement to access best health care.

The Prime Minister’s claim that this is only about privatising the payment system is laughable. His Government has indicated it wants private health insurance (PHI) to play a bigger part in funding our health system. PHI ignores the most sick and vulnerable. So does the Government. Any policies which promote privatisation and increased involvement of the PHI industry, whether for the payment system or for GP services or hospitals, are concerned only for those who can afford PHI, the rich minority of the population.