Latest News

Regional health services for the chop under rebate cuts

10-February-2012

Warren Truss MP -

 “LABOR’S means-testing of the private health insurance rebate is mean and extremely short-sighted,” Leader of The Nationals Warren Truss warned today, lambasting federal Independent MPs Rob Oakeshott and Andrew Wilkie for selling out their communities.

“Messrs Oakeshott and Wilkie have been key links in the conga-line of Labor-Greens’ assaults on working families, and this latest attack on the 30%, 35% and 40% private health insurance rebates cuts deep in their own backyards.

“The Gillard government is raiding families with private health insurance, treating them as cash cows, to compensate for its chronic waste and mismanagement and bail out its Budget black hole. While increasing the penalty on those who dump private health cover is simply another tax increase

“By driving people out of private health insurance Labor will lengthen hospital waiting queues and make the poorest in our community wait longer for medical treatment.

“Both Mr Oakeshott and Mr Wilkie have significant private health insurance membership in their communities and private hospitals those people rely on, so their decision to back Labor’s cuts to private health insurance is a base betrayal of the communities they purport to represent.

“These communities, and many regional communities across the country, currently have access to private hospitals and the specialists those hospitals bring to town, essentially acting as a hub for regional healthcare delivery. It is unimaginable that these so-called Independent MPs could support the government in means testing the rebates.

“Typically, private hospitals in regional centers have lower occupancy rates so operate on wafer-thin margins. Any erosion in occupancy will be magnified in regional hospitals – likely forcing cuts to services or causing some private hospitals to close their doors entirely.

“With regional private hospitals come visiting specialists. Any tinkering with the rebate that causes a cutback in demand in regional private hospitals will flow directly to specialists, who will retreat back to the cities – denying regional patients local access to the expertise and services they need, and forcing those patients to travel further, and at greater cost, for consultations and treatments.

“Forty percent of regional people have private health insurance. Those patients are using those private services, with many relying on them for repeat admissions over a course of treatment and for ongoing health conditions. Those families can ill-afford to lose the benefits they’ve enjoyed for over a decade or see them pared back.

“Labor and the Greens’ bid to cut those services in regional areas should have drawn a definitive response from the Independents. This betrayal leaves them with nowhere to hide.

“Labor’s spin that people on lower incomes will not be affected by the means test thresholds ($80,000 for singles and $160,000 for couples) does not stack up.

“They know once the insurance pool shrinks, premiums go up. Research by Deloitte shows that 1.6 million people in the government’s target income brackets will dump their private hospital cover, with another 4.3 million downgrading it.

“This initial exodus will force premiums up an estimated 10% putting health insurance beyond the reach of lower income earners and causing a second exodus. In fact, 5.6 million Australians with private cover earn less than $50,000-a-year. They can’t afford those massive premium hikes.

“Deloitte adds that public hospitals will be over-run as more than 845,000 extra admissions would pour through public hospital doors.

“The Coalition will, once again, vote to block this flawed assault on families who take responsibility for their own healthcare and, in doing so, save public hospital beds for public patients.

“Labor abandoned working families long ago and is only concerned with its own budget bottom line, now the Independents have abandoned the people they have a duty to represent.”