Putting the care back into health care

The Communist Party of Australia is a staunch advocate of 
Medicare and the Public Health System.

We believe in a quality public health system for the people based 
on need and not on ability to pay. Central to this are the 
principles of:

* universal access to Medicare and bulk billing;

* health services to be funded centrally through a progressive 
taxation system;

* no payment of fees for service.

We oppose the current dismantling of bulk billing and the 
imposition of up-front fees for visits to the doctor.

The Government's "Medicare Safety Net" is a con. It has nothing 
to do with strengthening Medicare. A universal system does not 
need a safety net. This is leading to the destruction of Medicare 
as a universal system.

The safety net encourages specialists to increase their fees and 
it is already being rorted — especially by obstetricians and 
radiologists. They are free to charge what they like, and the 
wealthy, who can afford to pay upfront, can then claim 80 percent 
back from the taxpayer. The "Medicare Safety Net" is not 
economically viable and is designed to bring Medicare to its 
knees with cost blowouts.

Howard's proposal to increase the Medicare Rebate WITHOUT tying 
the increase to bulk billing, by doctors is a cheap pre-election 
trick. It is, in fact, an attack on bulk billing.

We need MORE doctors and MORE bulk billing doctors — NOT more 
money going into the pockets of existing doctors without any 
improvement in health services.

Private health insurance

The 30 percent private health insurance rebate is a massive 
failure. The rebate, including on costs, eats up $3.6 billion of 
the health budget annually. Yet the private hospital system 
remains second class without providing a full range of services 
such as intensive care units, 24-hour resident doctor cover, etc. 
We oppose taxpayer-funded support for the private health 
industry.

When Mark Latham was recently acutely ill, his doctors quickly 
advised him to go into a public hospital where the best care is 
available.

More than 60 percent of privately insured people still go to a 
public hospital when they are sick — rather than be faced with 
large out of pocket costs when they get out.

Private hospitals "cherry pick", often refusing admission to the 
elderly or patients with chronic illnesses, even when they have 
had private insurance all their lives. They are worried that the 
patient will stay in hospital and end up costing them money!

The Communist Party calls for an end to the taxpayer funded $3.6 
billion annual Private Health Insurance Rebate.

Spend public money on the public system!

This money should be used to:

* increase funding for public hospitals;

* provide more doctors and more nurses for our struggling public 
system;

* increase funding for aged care by 10%;

* introduce a national public dental scheme;

* put a nurse into every GP clinic;

* fix the acute shortage of doctors and nurses by removing the 
limit on the number of doctors accepted into GP training;

* increase the number of nurse undergraduates as recommended by 
Australian Nursing Federation (1100 per year for the next 4 
years)

* increase funding of postgraduate nursing places to urban as 
well as rural areas (ANF policy)

* increase funding for Aboriginal health.

Aboriginal Health is a National calamity. Government policies 
have had a devastating effect on the Aboriginal Medical Service 
and Aboriginal Communities.

Hands off the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS)

Affordable medicines are a right for all Australians. The PBS has 
worked well but is now under threat from the big US 
pharmaceutical corporations as a result of the Australia-US Free 
Trade Agreement.

The Howard Government is determined to increase prescription 
costs. An increase in prescription costs is a direct attack on 
the sick, the chronically ill and the elderly — many of whom 
need 4, 5 or 6 prescriptions a month. We say there must be no 
increase in prescription costs and no direct advertising to the 
public by the pharmaceutical corporations of their products. At 
present the pharmaceutical corporations spend $900 million per 
year on direct marketing to doctors.

All of the above proposals for a universal, no-fee-for service, 
quality public health system could be funded by simply ending 
Howard's massive taxpayer subsidy to private hospitals through 
the private health insurance rebate.

Publicly owned health facilities and publicly funded health care 
is a right of all the Australian people.