By political reporter Eliza Borrello Wednesday 18 February 2015
Photo: Ms Ley says she will not guarantee that savings from the Government's new bulk billing plan will go towards a medical research fund. (AAP: Alan Porritt)
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Federal Health Minister Sussan Ley says she will not guarantee savings from the Government's new bulk billing plan will go towards a medical research future fund.
The federal budget revealed the Government's plan to charge bulk billed patients $7 to see a doctor and put the proceeds in a new medical research fund.
But in December the policy could not pass through the Senate and was dumped in favour of a $5 payment charged at a doctor's discretion.
In January, and within weeks of becoming health minister, Ms Ley then scrapped key parts of the new plan, stating she wanted to consult doctors.
She has now said she cannot guarantee the revenue from the proposal will go into the medical research fund.
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"I'm not going to guarantee something that relates to a consultation that I haven't completed ... that would be duplicitous of me," she said.
"The medical research future fund has money coming into it now and it's not dependent on one particular policy."
Before key parts of the policy were dumped, Coalition MPs complained to the ABC that it was hard to convince voters they needed to be charged more for going to the doctor when the money was going into a future fund rather than back into the general health budget.
Medical research fund: key points
Source: Federal budget overview, Research Australia
- The Medical Research Future Fund will support medical research over the coming decades
- $1 billion in uncommitted funds from the existing Health and Hospitals Fund was transferred into the MRFF at its inception on January 1, 2015
- The Government expects the fund to grow to $20 billion by 2020
- The fund is expected to make its first distribution of $20 million in 2015-16
- By 2022-23, the fund is projected to distribute about $1 billion a year into medical research
- It will be funded by estimated savings from health reforms in the budget
- Health Minister Sussan Ley says she cannot guarantee the proceeds of the Government's new bulk billing plan will go towards the fund
Asked whether she thought the medical community agreed with the proceeds of a co-payment going towards the future fund, Ms Ley said: "When I ask doctors about the medical research future fund, they're supportive of it.
"And anybody who recognises the value that that research adds cannot possibly say that it's not something we should go along with."
The Health Minister said she "did not want to pick a fight with doctors" as she consulted on the Government's plans and added that there had been "no fight in any of the consultations that I've had so far".
Ms Ley said she was holding consultations about the plan in New South Wales on Tuesday and released a series of figures she said backed the Government's push to charge some patients more money.
"I am having a genuine consultation with the medical profession and there is broad recognition that if 76 per cent of all episodes of care in Australia today are bulk billed for non-concessional patients then clearly there is an issue about those who can afford to pay, not paying as much as they should," she said.
Why changes had to be scrapped
Sophie Scott looks at why the changes to the Medicare rebates for short GP consultations had to go.
She added that New South Wales had the highest GP bulk billing rate in the nation, with nearly nine in 10 visits to doctors bulk billed, adding that the value of Medicare claims in the state had more than doubled in the past decade to more than $6 billion per year.
Ms Ley said that 10 years ago, the Medicare levy covered 67 per cent of the national cost of Medicare, but that had fallen to just 54 per cent over the past decade.
However she said the Government was not looking at raising the levy.
"If you just increase taxes you end up funding an inefficient system, by saying here's a revenue stream, let's just pay whatever it costs" she said.
