Leading public health policy expert warns Abbott Govt against Medicare cuts

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ELIZABETH JACKSON: One of Australia’s leading public health policy advocates has called on the Abbott Government to rethink its approach to health care, warning that many of the rumoured budget cuts appear to be driven more by ideology than efficiency.

Professor Stephen Leeder, director of the Menzies Centre for Health Policy, says the proposed changes, like a $6 fee on bulk-billed GP visits, would have no real impact on the health budget but would hurt those who can least afford it.

He’s speaking here with AM’s Deborah Cornwall.

STEPHEN LEEDER: I think there’s some nastiness wrapped up in all of this. I don’t believe for a minute that it’s purely economic. It’s saying to the constituency out there Medicare, which has been able to provide 80 per cent of general practice consultations as of today through bulk billing, that’s over. You’re going to have to pay every time you go to the GP.

DEBORAH CORNWALL: Can you guess at what the drivers might be for doing this even at the risk of seeing a large section of the population not getting the healthcare they need?

STEPHEN LEEDER: For my money, I think it is people saying ‘we don’t like Medicare’ or ‘we don’t like these people who we think overuse the system’, and generally speaking they are people completely unlike the critic in that they are lower socio-economic.

I think there’s a bit of that – a lot of that tucked away in this decision. It just does not compute.

DEBORAH CORNWALL: Why then would Treasurer Joe Hockey point to his own constituency of North Sydney, the wealthiest in the land, and say that they are great users of the bulk-bill GP visit?

STEPHEN LEEDER: It won’t deter them. Why would it? I mean, $6 is nothing to them; it’s nothing to me. But the people who live in the suburbs of Mount Druitt who can’t afford the bus fair to get to the community health centre, $6 a shot is real money.

DEBORAH CORNWALL: What impact might that have on, say, the public health system?

STEPHEN LEEDER: Think about it this way: if you’ve got an option between treating somebody for $50, $80, $100 and preventing them ending up in the intensive care ward and costing $20,000 in four weeks time – I mean, you’d have to be exquisitely out of touch with reality to choose the more expensive one. If you put a barrier in the way of people being able to access general practice, where will they go? There’s only one place.

DEBORAH CORNWALL: The other message arising out of this is that there’s far too many people accessing GPs – the ‘worried well’, if you like.

STEPHEN LEEDER: But that’s Joe Hockey speaking as Joe Hockey – who says we don’t want to treat people who are ‘worried well’? I’ve been worried and well myself on various occasions, and it’s not nice. Frankly there are no data; there’s nothing that I’m aware of by way of statistics in general practice.

ELIZABETH JACKSON: And that’s the director of the Menzies Centre for Health Policy, Professor Stephen Leeder, speaking to Deborah Cornwall.

Source: ABC Radio