It was revealed in the latest round of Senate Estimates that a total of over $793M is to be cut from the Health Flexible Funds over the next four financial years. …….

Chronic diseases such as heart disease, stroke and heart failure, cancer, chronic kidney disease, lung disease and type-2 diabetes, are responsible for 90 per cent of all deaths and 85 per cent of total disease in Australia. These diseases are largely driven by four modifiable risk factors; physical inactivity, unhealthy diets, tobacco use and alcohol consumption. Cutting funding to initiatives under the Chronic Disease Prevention and Service Improvement Fund makes no sense from a policy nor an economic perspective – estimated direct health-care costs for chronic disease are upwards of $27 billion and for obesity $58.2 billion per annum.

Among the other 13 Flexible Funds apparently to be affected are those supporting the provision of essential services in rural, regional and remote Australia; working to Close the Gap in health outcomes for Indigenous Australians; managing vital responses to communicable diseases; and delivering substance use treatment services around the country.

Full text, external link National Obesity Prevention Network first victim in cuts to Health Flexible Funds – Australian Healthcare and Hospitals Association.

From an earlier press release:

“Public Health Association of Australia deputy chief executive Melanie Walker said it was incongruous that the Government could find $20 million in the budget for an ice awareness campaign yet treatment services to help people dealing with addiction faced an uncertain future.”

More detail, external link Public Health Association. A coalition of 17 organisations..is calling on the Australian government…..

The Medical Journal of Australia calculates that the rebate freeze will be the equivalent of charging an additional $8.43 copayment per non-concessional patient consultation in 2017/2018 dollars, more than the previous headline grabbing co payments that the government tried to implement.

External link The cost of freezing General Practice

Save Medicare campaigners received a lot of positive feedback at yesterday’s very successful Day of Action  BUT there was one problem, too many people had only read the media headlines and  thought the government had backed down.  The most important headline was never published.

Save Medicare Sydney:

• Campaigned and marched in Sydney to Save Medicare and celebrate their win against the GP co payment version B.
• Held a forum in the afternoon, Keep Medicare Universal, Public and Fair.

The Forum speakers were:

Jean Parker – Save Medicare Sydney
Dr Ben Spies-Butcher – Senior Lecturer in Economy and Society at Macquarie University
Annette Aldrick – NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association

March flyer text

We’ve had a great win against the GP co-payment today, with Minister Sussan Ley declaring the government has scrapped it’s latest “Plan B” co-payment plan. But not only is the Medicare rebate freeze still in place, it’s clear the government is cooking up a PLAN C attack on Medicare!

Click to read or download our media release People power wins victory in battle against co-payment, but war for Medicare far from over

A lengthy article by the Medical Journal of Australia casts very serious doubts on government claims, extracts follow:

… the unsustainability thesis is remarkably weak.

…The anomalous concern with the costs and not the benefits of an expanding health sector implies comparative lack of concern or confidence in the benefits despite evidence that better health is one of the diminishingly few ways in which we can improve the quality of life of the population.

….the country with the oldest population – Japan – spends little more than the OECD average on health. This illustrates a common error: the belief that …ageing necessarily drives health expenditures. Historically, this has not been true, as health expenditures have been driven by technology and the increasingly generous provision of health services as GDP rises.

……public health expenditures by all governments in Australia are the tenth lowest of the 33 countries in the OECD database and the lowest among wealthy countries in the group.

….Bulk-billing … The principle effect of its elimination will be a redistribution of income from this group (low income) to the healthier, wealthier members of the community.

…Copayments will, additionally, divert patients from lower-cost general practitioner care to higher-cost outpatient care. Those who defer needed treatment are likely to eventually need more expensive specialist care

Perversely, in the longer run, eliminating bulk-billing is likely to increase GP fees and expenditures by reducing competitive pressures.

…the low level of GP incomes — the lowest relative to average wages listed by the OECD after Estonia and Hungary. However, a more equitable remedy would be to increase, not decrease, the rebate.

external link MJA Can we sustain health spending