Healthcare sector threatens bruising political battle after Medicare cuts
Date
December 19, 2015
Sydney Morning Herald
The backlash from the federal government's cuts to pathology and imaging services has made one thing clear: health minister Sussan Ley has a fight on her hands.
The battle erupted after the mid-year budget update this week, in which Treasurer Scott Morrison identified $650 million of savings from axing or reducing bulk-billing incentive payments for things like blood tests, X-rays and MRIs.
Big listed healthcare companies such as Sonic Healthcare have come out swinging and vowed to oppose the cuts, while Labor and the Greens have pledged to block the measures. There are threats to have material criticising the decision in every one of the thousands of sample collection centres in the country.
Sonic, Primary Health Care, Integral Diagnostics, and Capitol Health have all signalled their intent to charge co-payments to recoup the fee cut.
In a strongly worded statement attacking the lack of consultation and promising "mitigating actions" including co-payments and reduced services in rural areas, Sonic Healthcare warned it will not go quietly into the night.
"Sonic Healthcare will work with opposition parties, consumer groups and patients to oppose these measures, as we believe they are unreasonable for the profession and patients," the company said.
Opposition promises fight
The opposition has raised the spectre of a fierce political campaign in an election year.
Coalition ministers will not have forgotten the devastating impact of the orchestrated campaign, led by the Australian Medical Association, against the Abbott government's ill-fated GP co-payment plan.
Health minister Sussan Ley has a fight on her hands following funding cuts to pathology and imaging.
The AMA, the well-oiled machine lobbying on behalf of doctors, was quick to call this week's Medicare cuts a "co-payment by stealth", tarring the new policy change with the same brush as the now-defunct Abbott government policy.
AMA president Brian Owler said that after the long fight over the GP co-payment the government is "back to square one".
"This is not the way health policy is normally run," he said.
"This was seen as unfair in 2014 and I don't know why the government wants to continue to attack the sickest and most vulnerable patients."
Dr Owler said that there will be "ongoing activity around this issue highlighting the problems for patients".
He said the public can expect to see material from pathologists and the AMA in "every collection centre in the country".
Pathology Australia chief executive Liesel Wett, who represents the nation's private pathology industry, said there are more 5500 pathology collection centres in Australia.
"Millions of people get pathology tests so pathology providers have access to all Australians," she said.
Ms Wett said that in the past the industry always had an agreement with the government, even when funding cuts have been announced.
She said that this time there was no agreement with government.
'Shareholders above patients'
Health Minister Sussan Ley accused pathology and imaging businesses of looking out for their shareholders, rather than their patients.
"Medicare is not designed to be a guaranteed bankable revenue for corporations, nor is a taxpayer-funded bulk billing incentive there to cross-subsidise other costs of doing business. It's common sense, but it's starting to feel like a broken record that we have to keep reminding them," she said.
"To see diagnostic providers suggesting they will try and recoup the loss of a bulk billing incentive by passing it onto a patient they are no longer bulk billing just proves the point we are making."
The bulk billing incentive was introduced in 2009 by the Rudd Labor government when Nicola Roxon was health minister.
In the pathology sector, it was designed to partially offset a Medicare fee cut and to increase or maintain bulk billing rates.
It was feared at the time that the fee cut would lead to a spike in private billing so an incentive to bulk bill, ranging from $2 to $4 per collection in the private sector, was introduced.
The measure was expected to cost $348 million over four years, while fee cuts to the pathology sector were expected to save $763.4 million over four years.
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