Published in The Age on Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Doctors are leaving public hospitals as predicted years ago for four reasons, all related to Federal Government policy. Firstly, the taxpayer funded private hospital industry has expanded hugely with help from $3 billion in private health insurance (PHI) rebates. Secondly, the public hospitals are unable to cope because of federal underfunding of hospitals, aged care, and primary care, the latter two factors resulting in patients being in hospital when they don’t need to be. State Governments are in a muddle, increasing resources to public hospitals after deliberate underfunding a decade ago, but not catching up because they cannot address the Federal issues. The new Rudd Government plans to tackle only three of the reasons, It ignores the PHI rebate which, apart from being patently unjust, will continue to kill off the public system in favour of the profit driven private hospital industry. All Australians are at risk when our public hospital system fails, it’s where we will all go in emergencies.

Dr Tim Woodruff
President
Doctors Reform Society

Published in The Australian on Sunday, April 13, 2008

The Medicare Safety Net was supposedly designed to help people in difficult financial straits afford much needed care. Cross subsidizing interstate travel to a hair restoration clinic through profits gained from the ‘safety net’ are just one more way of ripping off this crazy Government initiative which is a gold mine for doctors and health businesses. The Government’s own figures show how unfairly it is distributed across the country, with the richest electorates getting about $60 per voter per year and the poorest only about $10 per voter. There must be a better way of making health care more affordable for everyone.

Dr Tim Woodruff
President
Doctors Reform Society

Published in The Australian on Monday, April 14, 2008

We should not be surprised at suggestions that too many x-rays are being performed (age 12/4). The profit motive is alive and well in the health industry. Some doctors have been asked to repay over $100,000 for overservicing. If that kind of doctor works in a for-profit corporate medical centre which has its own pathology and xray facilities, then we shouldn’t be surprised if unnecessary pathology and xrays are done. We can trust most doctors to do the right thing but when Governments allow for-profit vertically integrated health business to employ any kind of health professionals, it is setting the scene for overservicing, and fraud units will only pick the very worst offenders.

Dr Tim Woodruff
President
Doctors Reform Society

Published in The Age on Tuesday, April 15, 2008

As predicted (Australian 14/4), the funding of psychologists through fee for service is demonstrably inequitable with only 30% of consultations being bulk billed. The most needy are missing out despite the clear benefits to some. Additionally, the money for psychologists can only go to areas where there are doctors and psychologists so the least money goes to areas of workforce shortage which is just where the most needy patients are. The inverse care law: the most money goes to the least needy, the least money goes to the most needy, is alive and well. It’s time to look at how we fund not just psychologists, but doctors, physiotherapists, and other health providers. It’s time to recognize the basic inequity flaw underlying fee for service distribution of government health spending.

Dr Tim Woodruff
President
Doctors Reform Society

Published in The Age on Sunday, August 3, 2008

There is a shortage of vacant public hospital beds in Victoria and we should welcome the Australian Medical Association’s (AMA) call for more public hospital beds (letters 2/8). The AMA also call for a continuation of the $3 billion Private Health Insurance rebate which finances the growth of the private hospital industry. That industry can only grow if specialists are available. Such specialists can only come from public hospitals and State Government figures show that specialists are moving from the public to the private system. In the interests of all patients, the AMA should be calling for the abolition of taxpayer support for private health insurance, but is faced with the dilemma of the competing interests of patients and AMA members. For the doctors’ union the choice is simple and sad. Members’ interests are paramount. Patients miss out.

Dr Tim Woodruff
President
Doctors Reform Society

Published in The Age on Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Public hospitals are too full and unless that issue is addressed any reasonable performance measures for public hospital performance cannot be met. It would help if the Federal Government matched the State Government’s huge injection of funds into public hospitals to address the increased demand, sorted out the lack of Aged Care places for patients waiting in public hospitals, and addressed the issue loss of specialists from the public to the private hospitals which are funded through the taxes of the private health insurance rebate. It would also help if the State Government stopped spin doctoring the figures, and admitted that the figures are really worse than they appear. Waiting times for surgery ignore waiting times to be first seen by a surgeon which could add a year to real waiting times. ‘Virtual’ wards have existed to disguise prolonged waiting times in emergency departments. Unrealistic and misleading performance indicators only compound the problems.

Dr Tim Woodruff
President
Doctors Reform Society

Published in The Age on Sunday, May 24, 2009

Last year even Treasury was predicting some decrease in coverage following the changes to the Medicare Levy Surcharge last year. They and all the stakeholders were wrong (Sunday Age 17/5). As we told the Senate Committee at the time, increasing the price of Private Health Insurance does not mean people drop out. Trying to predict human behaviour is as inaccurate as trying to predict a global recession. Premiums have been rising well above inflation since the PHI rebate was introduced, and the numbers have been reasonably stable except for the initial rise following the Government funded industry scare campaign against public hospitals.

If, instead of fiddling at the margins with PHI, the Government transferred to the public hospitals all the over $3 billion tax dollars which currently support the private industry, we might finally see a return to equity and efficiency for all Australians.

Dr Tim Woodruff
President
Doctors Reform Society

Published in The Age on Saturday, January 6, 2007

That private health insurance premiums may not rise as much this year might seem to be good news, but a reality check is worthwhile. For the last five years premiums have risen at twice the rate of inflation, making private health cover less affordable every year for those Australians rich or desperate enough to have such cover. This year the news is that the premiums will still be higher than inflation, just not quite as bad.

Meanwhile, public health insurance premiums – taxes and the Medicare levy – used to fund public health care, have fortunately missed out on such huge increases. Income tax rates have decreased and the Medicare levy has risen only if one’s income has increased. The big winner: private health funds’ profits; the big losers: all Australians, because every increase in premiums means more taxes into the private funds through the rebate, leaving less to spend on our ailing public system.

Dr Tim Woodruff
President
Doctors Reform Society

Published in SMH on Tuesday, May 1, 2007

Despite the evidence that the $2.5 billion private health insurance rebate has minimal effect on public hospital waiting times (“Insurance rebates fail to ease pressure on public hospitals”, May 1), the continuing evidence that out-of-pocket costs, including payments for pharmaceuticals, are a serious burden for many patients, and the previous evidence that the Medicare safety net funding is going mainly to people in the wealthiest electorates, there is nothing yet from either major political party to address these issues.

It would seem that so far people on waiting lists and people who struggle to afford proper health care are invisible in the lead-up to this year’s federal election.

Dr Tim Woodruff

President

Doctors Reform Society

Published in The Age on Wednesday, May 16, 2007

The Opposition’s rejection of changes to the Private Health Insurance (PHI) rebate is a sad confirmation that neither of the major political parties accept that this $3 billion per year subsidy of the private health industry is both inequitable and inefficient. The rich are being asked by the Rudd Government to pay for the luxury of a short waiting time for surgery or for their private maternity services. How can Mr Turnbull object to that when over half of all Australians must wait for the underfunded public system for their care?

But whilst the Rudd Government has announced changes to the PHI rebate, it will do little more than save $500 million per year. It will not affect the growth of the private hospital sector which is dragging specialists out of the under-resourced public sector. Nor will these savings be earmarked to rebuild and properly finance the struggling public sector.

The 56% majority of Australians who can’t afford PHI will continue to be ignored by both major parties as both parties commit to private affluence and public squalor. Who cares about those who can’t afford private health insurance?

Dr Tim Woodruff
President
Doctors Reform Society