The Doctors Reform Society today called on Australians with private health insurance to refuse their rebate. People should not be fooled into thinking they can save themselves by opting for private insurance. The rebate will very quickly be swallowed up by increases in private health insurance fees.
"The non-means tested rebate is unfair and all Australians will be the losers" said Dr Con Costa, President of the Doctors Reform Society.
"People who can ill afford it may be attracted to private health insurance and the public system will be robbed of much needed funds. It is a 2 card trick designed to bring in Americanisation of our health system, a two-tiered system" said Dr Costa.
"It is outrageous that at a time when:
a) people are waiting for 8 hours for public casualty treatment
b) elderly heart attack victims are ‘encouraged’ by specialists to switch over to private hospitals after a few days of being stabilised in the public intensive care unit to have their operations/stents.
c) many doctors are leaving the western suburbs of Sydney and poorer areas due to a ‘frozen’ bulk billing rebate for virtually the last 10 years............... billions of dollars of tax payers money is being handed over to the private health insurance funds.
"This is economically stupid and ideologically driven. The money ($1.6 billion) would be better spent on the public system, on which we all depend" said Dr Costa.
"70% of Australians depend solely on the public system and 100% of Australians will use the public system in an emergency. Recent figures in Victoria also show that even people with private insurance choose to depend largely on the public hospitals. 63% of Victorians with private health insurance chose to be treated as public patients. They refused to declare their private status. Yet they are now going to be given a rebate, while the public system will face more budget cuts!" said Dr Costa.
"The Howard Government is giving a ‘shot in the arm’ for those who mostly don’t need it while the battlers again lose out" said Dr Costa.
6 January 1999