Medicare is broken, despite Rudd and Gillard health reforms, according to Catholic Health Australia (CHA).
CHA’s CEO Martin Laverty told an Adelaide conference last week the Rudd and Gillard governments’ health reforms have delivered no measurable improvements in national hospital performance, arguing both sides of politics must commit at the 2013 election to an overhaul of the 30-year-old Medicare system.
Representing not-for-profit operators of one in 10 of the nation’s hospital and aged care beds, Mr Laverty said COAG Reform Council data showed the average number of people seen in emergency departments within national benchmark time periods had only increased from 67 per cent to 70 per cent from 2007 to 2012, and average elective surgery waiting times in this same period had lengthened from 34 days to 36.
“The most disadvantaged Australians wait even longer for elective surgery. Average waiting times in disadvantaged communities for elective surgery tops 41 days, compared to a 30-day wait in advantaged areas.
Similarly, 29.5 per cent of people in disadvantaged areas had unacceptable waits to see a general practitioner, compared to 22 per cent… in advantaged areas,” Mr Laverty said in a media release.
“As Opposition Leader in August 2007, the now Prime Minister said ‘When it comes to improving Australia’s health and hospital system, as Prime Minister if elected, the buck will stop with me’.
Six years on, measurable improvement in Australia’s health and hospital system is yet to occur.
“The health reform actions of the Rudd and Gillard governments didn’t go far enough. The reforms didn’t look at the private health care sector. They didn’t recognise the role that social factors such as educational attainment, income disparity and housing have in triggering public hospital demand. Most regrettably, they didn’t touch Medicare,” Mr Laverty said.
“Medicare, which is a transactional payment system, isn’t getting all Australians in to see a doctor when they need to, and it is not enabling doctors in general practice the time to help manage all the determinants of health.
“With so much of a person’s health determined outside of the hospital system, the Prime Minister needs to make good on his promise that the buck stops with him. Similarly, the Opposition needs to commit to action. The action we ask both sides of politics to commit to at this election is an overhaul of Medicare to ensure Australia not only has universal access to health care, but that all Australians see a measurable improvement in their health and well-being.”