The following articles were published in "The Guardian", newspaper
of the Communist Party of Australia in its issue of Wednesday,
March 6th, 2002. Contact address: 65 Campbell Street, Surry Hills.
Sydney. 2010 Australia. Phone: (612) 9212 6855 Fax: (612) 9281 5795.
CPA Central Committee: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
"The Guardian": <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Webpage: http://www.cpa.org.au>
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FUND PUBLIC HEALTH. END THE PRIVATE PROFIT WASTE
The private health system is in crisis despite the government pouring
billions of dollars into it to keep it going. The elderly and very sick,
who were the target of a scare campaign to have people move into the
private health system to avoid waiting lists, now find themselves
discriminated against in favour of patients requiring elective and other
high-profit services.
For years State and Federal Governments have done everything they could
to drive people into the private health system. GP rebates were held
down to discourage doctors from bulk billing. Hospitals and hospital
beds have been closed, waiting lists have grown, as have shortages of
staff in hospitals.
The reality is that the private health system cannot provide universal,
quality and affordable services for the whole community. It cannot meet
the health needs of the people.
Responding to the rise in private health insurance premiums, the
Doctors' Reform Society (DRS) called for an end to private health
insurance waste. "Why can't we spend our taxes on the health system
which helps all Australians?", said National President of the DRS, Dr
Tim Woodruff.
Dr Woodruff said that those who were bribed and scared into private
health insurance should urge the Government to spend the $2.3 billion
tax rebate on the public sector "instead of wasting increasing amounts
every year maintaining or increasing the profits of the private health
insurance system."
Many people joined private health funds because of the governments so
called "life long cover", scheme. They rushed to the funds to sign up at
current membership rates, as in future their premium will depend on age
at the time of joining.
Close to three million people have taken out private health cover since
the government's multi-million dollar promotion began in 1999.
The fear campaign has been accompanied by incentives for people to join
the private health system. The government is pouring $2-3 billion a year
into the private health system through its 30 percent rebate on health
insurance premiums.
Some joined believing government propaganda that it would ease the
burden on the public system.
Having been promised cheaper premiums, those with private health
insurance are now facing increases in the premiums.
These private health measures have had a detrimental affect in every
area, confirmation that the for-profit system does not and cannot
deliver the health services necessary to meet the needs of all. It is in
fact a drag on the public system and a drain on the public purse.
The Government has just approved an 8.9 percent rise in Medibank
Private's premiums.
The private health funds are looking at mergers, and are pressuring the
Government to introduce changes that would enable them to operate more
along the lines of general insurance companies.
If they get their way then the private system will be able to charge
people according to their health status as well as age.
The outcome will be that people who have a chronic illness or have
suffered serious or complex medical conditions will be forced to pay
premiums so high they will become unaffordable.
Only those who are high-profit and low-risk (eg, the young) would be
able to gain affordable insurance.
The insurance companies providing indemnity for medical practitioners
have a crisis of their own. One company, Australian Medical Insurance
Limited, Australia's biggest medical indemnity provider, has been asked
by the Australian Prudential Medical Authority (APRA) to double its
capital levels. It is being investigated by APRA as to its soundness.
AMIL is wholly owned by United Medical Protection which indemnifies 90
percent of doctors in NSW and 60 percent nationally.
It was been hit by the HIH collapse, investment losses and by rising
reinsurance costs. AMIL's capital levels fell from $118 million at the
end of June last year to $38 million in December.
Already in several areas of specialisation such as obstetrics and brain
surgery there has been an exodus of specialists because of high
insurance premiums, which also push up the cost of health services.
If AMIL goes belly up, private medical practitioners might stop
practicing for fear of being sued. Ironically, many might turn to the
public system where they would be covered by the government.
It is impossible for it run on a profitable or even break-even basis
without denying access or adequate services to the chronically ill and
the poor, particularly the aged.
The private health system does not stand on its own feet. Apart from the
billions of dollars in subsidies through the health insurance rebate, it
is also subsidised heavily through Medicare funding for consultations
and procedures in private practices and hospitals.
We have a choice:
* to go down the US path of "managed health care" where insurance
companies, not doctors and patients, decide who will have what surgical
procedures, and where the poor and the aged are relegated to a
sub-standard public health system; or
* where we have a fully funded universal public health system which
provides quality services for all people, regardless of age or health
status, where all patients are bulk billed and all hospital treatment is
provided free of charge.
Such a public system would not only serve the people better but would be
far cheaper.
There is so much waste and duplication in the present system with 44
private health insurance funds, private indemnification of medical
practitioners, and for-profit provision of services.
In addition there is an inherent conflict of interest between the profit
motive that drives the private system and the health and welfare of
patients.
The private system, run by such corporations as Mayne Nickless, provides
health services to make profits for their shareholders.
Health to them is big business. Health services themselves are
coincidental, a vehicle for making those profits.
At present the Federal Government is considering ways of yet again
propping up the private health funds and private health system.
Whether it does it by more subsidies, by removing people's rights to sue
medical practitioners or by allowing the funds to charge even more, it
will not solve the present health crisis in the private health system.
The Government must withdraw support from the private system and rebuild
and strengthen the public health system, a system which the majority of
Australians overwhelming support.
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