Private patients jumping queue

MEDICARE is being privatised by stealth as state governments end free public hospital care and the federal government squeezes patient rebates.

News Corp revealed this week that privately insured patients were getting priority treatment in public hospitals, waiting just 20 days for elective surgery, while public patients waited 42 days.

A follow-up investigation can reveal up to one in four patients in public hospitals are having health funds billed for their treatment.

And some treatments in public hospitals are no longer free, as state governments introduce secret patient charges totalling more than $1.5 billion a year.

The Australian Medical Association has confirmed people treated as outpatients in public hospitals are being charged a $38.80 fee for medicines fully paid for by the federal government.

Public hospitals are also billing outpatient appointments with hospital specialists to Medicare.

Cancer Support Group ACT Eden Monaro chief executive Melissa Gardiner said her group was spending $500,000 a year helping cancer patients with their bills, many of which were for drugs that should be free in a public hospital.

Private Healthcare Australia chief Rachel David said: “It is definitely privatisation by stealth and it’s Labor states as well as Liberal states doing this.”

However, Australian Medical Association NSW president Brad Frankum said the federal government would have to pour millions of dollars more into hospitals if they were prevented from billing health insurers or charging for medicines.

“Any talk from the federal Health Minister Greg Hunt about stopping this would cause an absolute crisis in hospital funding, it would blow up in his face and he would be under pressure to find more federal funding,” Professor Frankum said.

Mr Hunt said, while the Commonwealth was investing more in Medicare, some states were billing private patients in the public system to “to pad their budgets at the expense of public patients, who will have to wait longer”.

He said he was seeking explanations from state health ministers.

Consumers Health Forum chief Leanne Wells said when trends towards out of pocket costs and private for-profit services were put together, it raised “troubling evidence that Australia’s health system is drifting away from the equitable and universal principles that Medicare is meant to deliver”.

ANY TALK FROM THE FEDERAL HEALTH MINSTER GREG HUNT ABOUT STOPPING THIS WOULD CAUSE AN ABSOLUTE CRISIS IN HOSPITAL FUNDING, IT WOULD BLOW UP IN HIS FACE AND HE WOULD BE UNDER PRESSURE TO FIND MORE FEDERAL FUNDING PROFESSOR BRAD FRANKUM