Australian Medical Association lashes ALP for block on NDIS

The AMA has split with Bill Shorten, ­declaring the opposition should support a rise in the Medicare levy to fund the NDIS.

AMA president Michael Gannon. Picture: AAP

The powerful doctors’ lobby, which backed Labor on parts of its Mediscare election campaign, has split with Bill Shorten, ­declaring the opposition should support a rise in the Medicare levy across all income tax ­brackets to fund the $22 billion National Disability Insurance Scheme.

As the Australian Medical Association prepares to release its first position paper on the flagship disability project, its president, Michael Gannon, told The Australian it was disappointing that the opposition had refused to back a levy rise on the same terms it ­delivered when Labor was last in government.

In 2013, the Gillard government legislated a half-percentage-point rise in the Medicare levy to 2 per cent, with the backing of Tony Abbott’s Coalition, to pay for less than half of the commonwealth’s commitment to the NDIS. The increase ­applied to all income earners ­regardless of their tax bracket.

When Scott Morrison unveiled a plan to hike the levy by another half percentage point to 2.5 per cent in last year’s budget — to plug a $56bn federal funding shortfall over the first decade of the full NDIS rollout — it was scuppered by the Opposition Leader, who called it a “tax grab”.

Mr Shorten backs the rise but only on the top 20 per cent of ­income earners: those on incomes of $87,001 and above.

The AMA position paper says: “Governments must commit to fund the NDIS to ensure its viability and that all eligible recipients are provided appropriate and adequate funding ­packages.”

The paper highlights a growing emergency in mental health funding. The AMA demands investment in community mental health services at both federal and state level remain, to support tens of thousands of people who will not be eligible for the NDIS.

Dr Gannon told The Australian the scheme should not be used as “a political football”.

“It (Mr Shorten’s position) is disappointing because we want to see this scheme, which should be celebrated by both sides of politics, we want to see it implemented,” he said. “The care of disabled Australians should not be contestable and should not be a political football. As Labor previously had that position (to raise the levy across all incomes) we would not see that as a backdown and we would see them ­recognising the importance of securing this reform.”

Social Services Minister Dan Tehan has called on Mr Shorten to listen to the advice of medical specialists and back the funding reform. “The government believes the fairest way to fully fund the NDIS is through every ­eligible Australian making a contribution via the Medicare levy,” Mr Tehan said.

“My message to Bill Shorten is: stop thinking about your own political ambition and think about the tens of thousands of Australians whose lives will be improved by a fully funded NDIS.

“Please do the right thing and support our increase in the Medicare levy to fully fund the NDIS. The AMA is right, the NDIS is too important to be kicked around like a political football”

The medical body’s paper also lashes the National Disability Insurance Agency and its planners for “disregarding medical professionals’ diagnoses and reports by NDIS planners who are not medically trained”. It says psychiatric eligibility should be determined only on the level of disability, not currently the practice of the NDIA, rather than including how a person developed the condition, even in cases of drug and alcohol addiction or foetal alcohol spectrum disorder.

“I wrote to the then minister Christian Porter before the reshuffle asking for FASD to be recognised as a disability,” Dr Gannon said. “The circumstances under which people ­acquire a disease or disability are not relevant at all. Smokers ­deserve to have their coronary artery disease managed, heavy drinkers deserve treatment for their bowel cancer.

“How someone acquires a disability is not relevant.”

Dr Gannon said the AMA was “comfortable” with the Medicare levy paying for the disability scheme “as long as it is transparent and as long we know exactly what that is going to.”

The levy rise, which would take effect in July next year if the Coalition is able to pass the legislation, would take total receipts from the levy from $16.6bn in 2018-19 to $21.8bn in 2019-20 and almost $23bn in 2020-21.

“I don’t think we should underestimate the scale of the task in getting the NDIS right and our hope is it will rank alongside Medicare as one of the grand social projects that defines our nation,” Dr Gannon said.

Economist Saul Eslake said Mr Shorten’s blockade of the levy increase was ­“entirely inconsistent” with what Labor did in office. “The point I would make is this is an insurance scheme and disability can affect everyone,” Mr ­Eslake said. “It is a scheme that covers everyone and, like health insurance, it is completely fair that it is paid for by everyone ­according to their income.”

The ALP used social media to declare the levy proposal a “tax hike on working Australians”. In 2013, Mr Shorten put out a statement when Labor passed its measure, saying: “That’s about a dollar a day for the ­average Australian to go towards a better life for people with disabilities.”

Data from the Department of Social Services shows the federal funding gap for the NDIS growing from $4.1bn a year in 2019-20 to $7bn in 2028-29 when gross scheme costs hit $32bn a year.

Under the bilateral agreements between the federal government and each state — most of which were signed in 2012 and 2013 under Julia Gillard’s stewardship — the commonwealth is responsible for 100 per cent of cost overruns in the scheme while state governments are pegged to rising costs capped at 3.5 per cent a year. Cemented into the scheme design, too, is a ­control-sharing arrangement that gives states power over major changes which in turn limits the ability of the federal government to keep a lid on costs.