Mon 4th Apr 2016
Chronic Disease Health Plan 1 Step Closer To 2 Tiered Health System
CHRONIC DISEASE HEALTH PLAN
1 STEP CLOSER TO 2 TIERED HEALTH CARE
“The release yesterday by the Federal Government of a completely different way for funding the care of patients with chronic disease is on the surface, a very welcome change in direction with the capacity to improve health care”, said Dr Tim Woodruff, Doctors Reform Society. “But the reality is different. This Government is determined to make our health system two tiered by increased involvement of the private health insurance (PHI) industry.
The report from the Primary Health Care Advisory Group recommends the Government “further encourage PHIs [private health insurers] to fund the prevention and management of chronic conditions”. This is manna from heaven for both the Government and the PHI industry.
With PHI more involved the future is inevitable: two tiered primary health care, just like we have two tiered access to elective surgery and to dental care.
The Government is combining this with cuts to Medicare through freezing the rebate with the inevitable consequence of decreased bulk billing, new and larger co-payments, and further opportunities for PHI to be involved to cover the co-payments.
It is not offering any new funding for this new chronic disease policy so with declining GP Medicare incomes, it is looking to PHI to come up with the shortfall, but only for those who can afford PHI.
Much of this will not be apparent before the election but once re-elected, we will see the continuation of the Government’s clearly stated agenda to make more people pay more for health care and its unstated agenda to turn Medicare into a second rate safety net and promote private expensive US style health care for those who can afford it.