THE HON SUSSAN LEY MP
Minister for Health
Minister for Sport
TRANSCRIPT
Press Conference regarding the Review of Medicare
22 April 2015
Subjects: A healthier Medicare
Sussan Ley: ... Thanks for coming out on this wet Sydney day. I hope it's raining in
Broken Hill, in the Far West of New South Wales, which is my electorate and very
close to my heart. However, today I'm talking about some key results of my
consultations with doctors, with patients, with health professionals across the country
in the last few months, and announcing that the Abbott Government, based on the
feedback we've received and working with health professionals every step of the
way, are announcing three priority areas: a Medicare Benefits Schedule Review
Taskforce, led by Professor Bruce Robinson, Dean of the Sydney University Medical
School; a Primary Health Care Advisory Group, led by former AMA president Dr
Steve Hambleton; and we'll also work on areas of Medicare compliance to improve
the system, and to make it better reflect what it is supposed to do, which is to support
patients, to support health, and to keep Australia's world-class health system well
and truly functioning into the future.
So, I'm happy to take questions, and open to those now.
Question: Minister is the Medicare- is the co-payment now completely off the table?
Sussan Ley: Well the co-payment was off the table months ago, and it's even more
off the table today. Clearly, after consulting, following the recommendation of the copayment by the National Audit Commission, we found there was no appetite for it not with doctors, not with patients, and not with my colleagues in the Federal
Parliament. So, it is gone.
Question: So it was a pretty big stuff-up then.
Sussan Ley: I wouldn't describe it as so. Remember, it was a recommendation of
the National Commission of Audit, and it was appropriate that the Government
explore it to its fullest extent. But I announced several months ago that it was off the
table, and it remains off the table.
Question: [Talking over] You talked about - sorry - you talked about a rebate freeze,
and [indistinct]?
Sussan Ley: I announced, when I talked about the co-pay being removed, that the
pause on indexation of rebates would remain. But I wouldn't like that pause to be
there a day longer than it needs to be. And I recognise that essentially what it's doing
is freezing an inefficient NBS structure. What we're talking about today is making that
structure better reflect contemporary medical practice, and in the process better care
for patients. So that pause will not be in place one day longer than it needs to be.
Question: Will that restructure need to take place before a pause can be lifted? Is
there any prospect of that pause being lifted before structural changes are made?
Sussan Ley: As soon as we can, and in consultation with doctors, we will lift the
rebate pause. Now, importantly, what we're doing with our MBS Review Taskforce, is
scoping out areas of better efficiency within the health system. Now, this is not the
Government saying here we are finding savings; and let me just say, if that was the
case I don't think the clinicians would hang around and do this important work with
us. They are committed to doing this. And remember, that it will come up with
savings when items come off the MBS or are changed, but there are also new items
to be added. This is a process that happens all the time. So, we are very committed
to the integrity of the Medicare Benefits Schedule, on modernising it for the future,
because we want it to provide the best care for patients that it can.
Question: [Interrupts] Sorry, you talk about blended funding; can you tell me about
[indistinct]?
Sussan Ley: Because so much of the care today and into the future is chronic
disease, not episodes of care, it's appropriate that patients are looked after in a group
by their usual medical practice. And this is something that the College of General
Practice has raised with me - in fact they produced a paper last week which picks up
on a lot of these things. And the important thing is that chronic care patients need to
come back regularly, to get treatment in an appropriate time frame, to see their usual
doctor, and to have all of the preventative aspects of their condition put in place as
they manage a disease burden that they may have, or probably will have for the rest
of their lives. So, it does make sense for a blended model of payment where perhaps
a practice is remunerated with a block of funding, and there's also some fee-forservice funding as well. Now, these things are not new. We've got them happening to
some degree in our general practices now. But when I meet and talk to general
practitioners they'll often say that the arrangements we have - the team care, chronic
disease payment items and care plans - while welcome don't exactly target the
conditions as well as they could. So that is part of the work of that group to reform
those items of chronic care.
Question: Minister, as a result of this consultation process over the next six months
or so, surely you're going to want to seek some sort of cost benefit to the
Government, some cost reduction to the health system?
Sussan Ley: Well no Health Minister does not want to get the best bang for our
dollar when it comes to health. Of course we want to make the system is as efficient
as possible. And what I heard as I travelled the country, and I still talk to doctors
every day, is yes there are areas of waste and inefficiency and this is where they are.
And there are anecdotes across this whole area. So, we know there are
inefficiencies, we absolutely understand that.
Question: How many billions do you want to save?
Sussan Ley: There's no billion dollar saving target attached to this. There's no figure
that I have to come up with. And again, this is clinician led, this is led by doctors; and
I mean really high-quality practitioners in each of the specialities will be involved.
Question: The pharmacy sector seems to think you have a $30 billion savings target
over five years to reach, are they wrong?
Sussan Ley: The pharmacy sector is incorrect, and I have no idea where that piece
of information has come from, but it certainly hasn't come from the Government.
Question: Is there any prospect that these- the proposed changes to the Medicare
Benefits Scheme could lead to a winding back of the universality of what is available
for people?
Sussan Ley: Quite the contrary. In fact, these changes are designed to support the
universality of Medicare. And that is one of the fundamental principles of our
Medicare system: that it be universal, that it be equitable in its distribution of costs,
and that it be simple to administer. So, these groups that I'm announcing today will
work very much- will dovetail with the intentions of the reasons why Medicare was set
up. But let's never forget, this is about patients. For patients, the fact that our health
system is funded in part by the state part by the Federal Government, that there are
these complicated items, 5500 on a Medicare Benefits schedule, that's of relatively
little interest. What patients want is the best care, the most appropriate care, and the
best results. And that's what I'm certainly focused on.
Question: This is like Groundhog Day, every time our health and hospital [indistinct]
what's different about what you're proposing now?
Sussan Ley: Well the previous Labor government probably did have many reports.
I'm not sure how many they acted on, they certainly didn't undertake this important
piece of reform, and it's long overdue. I'm told it's long overdue by clinicians across
the country, and I'm really looking forward to working with them to realise an
improved system.
Can we have the last question please?
Question: One last one. The AMA still has reservations that this process might lead
to further cuts to their sector and to what is available to them. Do you still have some
way to go in repairing relations with the AMA?
Sussan Ley: I don't believe so. In fact I'm pleased that the AMA has welcomed the
establishment of these groups and said that they'll work closely with us to realise
what we all need to do, and that is modernise the MBS and improve our approach to
primary care. So, the working relationship between ourselves and the AMA is
constructive, and we chat almost every week.
Thank you very much.
ENDS