$7 GP co-payment plan sparks fall in donations to medical research

THE government’s $20b medical research fund paid for by a controversial $7 GP fee has sparked a collapse in private donations for medical research.

THE government’s $20 billion medical research fund paid for by a controversial $7 GP fee has sparked a collapse in private donations for medical research from generous Australians.

The CEO of Sydney’s Garvan Institute Andrew Giles says several of the institute’s regular donors cancelled their contributions after the federal government announced its fund in the May budget.

“It’s tax time and we’ve got letters from regular donors saying ‘I’m not giving you money when you are already getting money from the government’,” he said.

Most of them have reconsidered when he called them but he fears there will be a widespread perception in the community individuals no longer need to donate to medical research.

“It’s a double-edged sword,” he told News Corp Australia.

Many Australians did not understand the scheme has not yet been approved by the Parliament and that the rules underpinning the funding had not yet been agreed.

The budget papers show even though the government reaps more than $2 billion in savings from health cuts next year it will spend just $20 million extra on medical research.

By 2017-18 when the cumulative funds in the Medical Research Future Fund reach $11.9 billion, the Government will spend only $179 million a year more on medical research.

It won’t be until 2022-23 that extra funds for medical research will reach the $1 billion mark.

Losing money ... the Garvan Institute of Medical Research in Sydney.

Walter and Eliza Hall Medical Research Institute director Professor Doug Hilton said he wrote to his donors right after the budget to explain it would be three to seven years before the government fund would provide major funding.

QMIR Berghofer Medical Research Institute director Professor Frank Gannon says he’s not sure if anyone has cancelled donations yet but he is worried.

He fears the community will think the government is actually spending $20 billion on medical research when it fact it is only spending the interest earned on that money on medical research.

“It’s a confused situation and people think it is a horrendous sum but it is not that sum,” he said.

The one billion that will be spent on medical research in 2023 is not fanciful it is just Australia lifting its contribution to the world standard, he said.

There is a danger that “some people will think they’ve got enough and they’ll do something else,” he said.

It was up to the medical research community to educate the public about the importance of their philanthropy and show them the outcomes of the research the donations paid for.

A spokesman for Health Minister Peter Dutton said medical research has always been funded by a mix of government backing and private philanthropic donations.

“The government believes those generous private donors who have supported medical research in the past will continue to support this vital work,” he said..

Originally published as $7 GP co-payment plan sparks fall in donations to medical research