Health Minister Sussan Ley hints $20 billion Medical Research Future Fund might not go ahead

OUR quest for a medical breakthrough looks decidedly ill after the Health Minister hinted dropped a big hint today.

CAMBRIDGE, UNITED KINGDOM - DECEMBER 09: A Scientist looks at cells through a fluorescent microscope at the laboratories at Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute on December 9, 2014 in Cambridge, England. Cancer Research UK is the world's leading cancer charity dedicated to saving lives through research. Its vision is to bring forward the day when all cancers are cured. They have saved millions of lives by discovering new ways to prevent, diagnose and treat cancer, and as such the survival rate in the UK has doubled in the last 40 years. Cancer Research UK funds over 4,000 scientists, doctors and nurses across the UK, more than 33,000 patients who join clinical trials each year and a further 40,000 volunteers that give their time to support the work. (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images/Cancer Research UK)

REMEMBER the Budget that was going to cure cancer? Well the Government’s quest for a miracle medical breakthrough now looks decidedly ill.

Health Minister Susan Ley today said she could not guarantee the $20 billion Medical Research Future Fund — designed to look for cures for a range of illnesses — would go ahead as planned.

“I’m not going to guarantee something that relates to a consultation that I haven’t completed ... that would be duplicitous of me,” Ms Ley told ABC radio.

“The Medical Research Future Fund has money coming into it now and it’s not dependent on one particular policy.”

Ms Ley today will continue her consultations with the Australian Medical Association in Sydney. The Government wants to cut the Medicare rebate to doctors and let them decide whether to pass on the extra cost to patients.

Those talks will continue but it is now clear the Government will not be able to deliver the full promise it made in the Budget last May, when it said a proposed $7 copayment for GP visits would go into the fund.

Associate Professor Brian Owler, President of the Australian Medical Association (AMA) meeting with Health Minister Sussan Ley in her office at Parliament House in Canberra.

“It may be an Australian who discovers better treatments and even cures for dementia, Alzheimer’s, heart disease or cancer,” Treasurer Joe Hockey said at the time.

“If we start investing now, this new and historic commitment in medical research may well save your life, or that of your parents, or your child.”

And he said: “If we are truly going to find the cures for cancer, mental health, illnesses, we’ve got to start investing now.”

That prospect has disappeared along with the $7 copayment itself.

The original plan was for the Government to redirect existing research funding into the future fund. The copayment would then be used to bulk up the fund until it reached $20 billion by 2020.

It would keep its capital and through interest would be injecting $1 billion a year into medical research by 2022-23.

The prospects now are for a much leaner investment in research with base capital nowhere near $20 billion.

A breakthrough from Australian researchers might be tough if funding is cut. Picture: Dan Kitwood / Getty Images