Doctors will enter the election campaign demanding the major parties end the six year freeze on Medicare rebates and increase spending on public hospitals.
The entry of the peak medical group into the federal election campaign comes as it is embroiled in its own election stoush.
AMA President Professor Brian Owler’s two year term ends later this month and one of the two candidates campaigning for his job has branded the current leadership too lefty.
The AMA will warn patients they will have to pay to see a doctor, get a blood test or have a scan unless the government elected on July 2 removes the freeze on Medicare rebates.
“The freeze on MBS indexation will create a two-tier health system, where those who can afford to pay for their medical treatment receive the best care and those who cannot are forced to delay their treatment or avoid it altogether,” the peak doctors group says in its election manifesto to be launched on Thursday.
Elective surgery waiting queues will also reach “dangerous levels” unless hospital funding is increased, the AMA says.
“The current level of funding will not meet the demand for services with an ageing population, and lead to emergency department and elective surgery waiting times reaching dangerous levels,” it warns.
The AMA also wants a National Physical Activity Strategy that clearly defines practical, prioritised and evaluated measures and national indicators of physical activity participation.
There are two people competing to replace Professor Owler in the top job at the AMA from June.
Current vice president and Victorian emergency doctor Steve Parnis who declares that the AMA should not take sides in politics.
The other is West Australian obstetrician Dr Michael Gannon who wants the AMA to work more closely with the Turnbull Government.
Dr Gannon says he’s a personal friend of Assistant Health Minister Ken Wyatt and knows Finance Minister Mathias Corman socially.
“The criticism that is made of the current leadership is that it’s strong on progressive policies but not listened to by the conservative government,” Dr Gannon told News Corp Australia recently.
Mr Gannon now says he does “not want to overstate” these relationships and he says he wants to work with all sides of politics.
And he has described the Turnbull Government’s decision to freeze the Medicare rebate for six years as a “dagger in the heart of general practice”.
Dr Gannon caused controversy earlier this year when he blamed the new obsession among mothers and midwives for skin-to-skin contact with babies for the death of an infant.
He has also taken aim at the AMA stand on asylum seekers.
“When organisations such as the AMA speak out against government policy, they need to recognise the risk to other aspects of their agenda,” he wrote in AMA WA publication Medicus in March.
Dr Steve Parnis says the AMA should remain fiercely non partisan and independent.
He says its job is to explain how health policy impacts on patients.
“The AMA is the strongest voice in the medical profession and it needs to and will continue to speak out but it must be utterly impartial,” he says.
“I have a proven record of making the case for the profession and the priorities I bring are to ensure the health system provides universal access to high quality services that are affordable and that there is an appropriate balance between public and private systems,” he said.