Free care at public hospitals is coming to an end as state and territory governments charge

FREE care at public hospitals is ending with patients being charged by state governments for medicines and bills sent to their health fund.

Medicare being privatised by stealth. Picture News Corp.

EXCLUSIVE

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

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

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

And some treatments in public hospitals are no longer free as state governments introduce secret patient charges totalling over $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 that are fully paid for by the Federal Government.

AMA President Dr Michael Gannon denied Medicare was being privatised. Picture: Ray Strange

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

Health consultant Martyn Goddard says some transplant patients using five treatments are paying $194 a month in fees in Tasmania.

Melissa Gardiner, the chief executive of the The Cancer Support Group ACT Eden Monaro, says her organisation is spending $500,000 a year helping cancer patients with their medicine bills, many of which are for drugs that should be free in a public hospital.

THE BEST AND WORST OF HEALTH FUNDS

Public hospital patients are being charged for chemotherapy. Picture: Spotmatik

“The whole great ideal of universal healthcare which goes to the heart of what we think we are as Australians is falling apart,” says Goddard.

Private Healthcare Australia chief Rachel David described it as “definitely priv­atisation by stealth”.

Public hospitals are also cajoling patients to charge their public hospital care to their private health funds, a practice that is driving up health fund premiums.

Analysis by health funds found in the year to December found:

Analysis by health funds found in the year to December 2016 has found

• IN NSW, one in four public hospital patients are having their care charged back to their health fund;

• IN Victoria, 18 per cent of patients are having their care charged back to their health fund;

• IN Queensland it’s 15 per cent of patients are having their care charged back to their health fund;

• IN Western Australia 12 per cent of patients are having their care charged back to their health fund;

• IN South Australia 13 per cent of patients are having their care charged back to their health fund; and

• IN Tasmania 21 per cent of patients are having their care charged back to their health fund.

One in five patients in NSW have their public hospital care charged to their health fund.

Health Minister Greg Hunt has hit out at the states and said while the Commonwealth is investing more in Medicare “some states are using the practice of private patients in public hospitals to pad their budgets at the expense of public patients, who will have to wait longer”.

Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt said state governments were wrong to take private patients in public hospitals as they pay through their health fund at the expense of public patients. Picture: Toby Zerna

Australian Medical Association president Dr Michael Gannon said it was inaccurate to say Medicare was being privatised.

“But you are exactly right about the individual examples you give that point to where we have not got the balance right on patient contribution to healthcare,” he said.

“We have the third-highest out-of-pocket expenses for health in the world.”

He said health ministers must work on how to properly fund public hospitals.

The CEO of the Consumers Health Forum, Leanne Wells, said it is “troubling evidence that Australia’s health system is drifting away from the equitable and universal principles that Medicare is meant to deliver”.

“We need to see action from federal, state and territory governments to ensure Australia’s health care does not become a two-tiered system that delivers second rate services for those on low incomes,” she said.

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