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.