IT'S UP TO YOU Defend and Extend Medicare ? Australia is up and away. We have nine functioning Federal electorate groups: Flinders, Dunkley, Melbourne, Gellibrand, Goldstein, Deakin, Willis, Batman and Kooyong. We hope to have one group established in every 150 Federal electorates by the end of the year. The time, date and venue has been set for monthly rallies to be held across Australia. The first rally is organised for 5.30 p.m., Friday the 5th of September, in front of the State Library in Swanston Street, Melbourne. Defend and Extend Medicare electoral groups are autonomous. They send delegates to regular meetings to formulate strategy and policy. Delegates' meetings are open to observers. Observers are able to actively participate in the meeting. If no consensus can be reached, delegates at the delegates' meetings will vote on the proposal at the meeting. Defend and Extend Medicare is highly political, but non-party political. its members come from a wide cross-section of the community. We want access to health care to be a right, not a charity, or a luxury. We are involved in activities that will eventually force governments to make universal access to health care a right in Australia. Groups need to be established in every Federal electorate. Ask yourself if you are concerned about access to the current health care delivery system. If you are, your just the person we're looking for to form a Defend and Extend Medicare electoral group. Organise a public meeting and get the ball rolling in your part of the country. If you need help to get started, ring Defend and Extend Medicare on (03) 5298 21170, write to us at P.O. Box 5035 ALPHINGTON 3078 Australia, or e-mail us at defendmedicare@yahoo.com.au. If you don't have the time or energy or confidence to start a local group, you can publicise the first rally that will be held on the 5th of September by downloading posters, material for car stickers and badges from the Defend and Extend Medicare, website www.defendmedicare.cjb.net. The type of society we live in, eventually depends on the contribution we make to public life in this country. Complaining is not enough; running around like Chicken Little is not enough. We need to organise and fight for what we believe in. If we leave it to the politicians to do the job for us, we will find ourselves in a position where we will lose what few rights and privileges we currently enjoy, including access to universal health care.   "WMD" Just a few months ago John Howard was adamant that Iraq's cache of "Weapons of Mass Destruction" (WMD) was an imminent danger to world security and Australia. He committed Australia to the coalition of the willing and Australia's defence forces took an active role in the invasion of Iraq. Today an increasing number of Australian's are wondering where all those WMD that the Prime Minister was so insistent about that posed an immediate and real threat to the country, are. After carefully analysing all the available evidence and entering into exhaustive discussions with a number of government sources and some highly placed sleepers in Australia's security agencies, I've been convinced that WMD are real and are not a result of John Howard's feverish imagination. WMD do exist, they exist in Australia, they have been hidden in Senator Kay Patterson's, the Federal Health Minister's parliamentary office in Canberra. Weapons of Medicare Destruction (WMD) have been assembled by the Federal cabinet and have been carefully disguised as a Medicare reform package, that when activated by its passage through the senate will destroy universal health care in this country. While John Howard's WMD have been found to be an exercise in verbal gymnastics and hyperbole, the Federal government's WMD are real and if the WMD package is passed by the Senate, will have a profound and lasting effect on the health of Australian society. It's effects will not only be felt by the 40% of Australian's who rely on Social Security benefits to survive, it will also be felt by all those working Australian's who will find they will have to put their hands into their pockets to access even the most basic health care for themselves and their children. It's important that for the welfare of the Australian community, the Federal government's weapons of Medicare destruction be destroyed. Defend and Extend Medicare - is at the forefront of a struggle that has been launched to destroy WMD in Australia. We will be holding mass rallies across the country until the next Federal election is held to keep this issue alive in the public domain. Join us at the first of these rallies which will be held at 5.30pm outside the State Library in Swanston Street Melbourne on Friday the 5th of September and destroy the Weapons of Medicare destruction that are currently stored in Canberra.   RIGHT LOGIC, WRONG ANSWER The ?Herald Sun' editorial 21/07 which acknowledges that an alarming number of doctors across Australia are abandoning bulk billing, mistakenly suggests that the passage of the Howard government's Medicare package through the Senate, will resolve the current Medicare crisis. Doctors, especially in Liberal and National Party electorates, have stopped bulk billing because the Medicare rebate has not kept up with inflation. The Howard government has, since its election seven years ago, attempted to destroy universal health care by starving it of funds. As a consequence of the pressure that has been exerted on the Federal government by voters in its own electorates, as a result of this policy, the Howard government will be introducing changes in parliament which it claims will halt the rapid decline of bulk billing that's occurring. This so-called reform package will put the final nail in one of the most important social innovations in this country - universal access to health care, not save it. The proposed changes will create a two tier system, where those who continue to be bulk billed will, like in the Fawkner clinics case, receive a second rate service, while those who have the disposable income will have access to the best health care money can buy. Every single doctor's organisation, from the radical Doctors Reform Society, to the conservative Private Doctors of Australia, to the Australian Medical Association, have stated their members do not support the proposed changes and will not be opting into the government's proposed scheme. The proposed reforms are an ideologically driven mish-mash of stillborn proposals that in no way addresses the problem of dramatically falling bulk billing rates. If the opposition parties do not block this legislation in the senate, we may as well begin writing Medicare's obituary. What has happened at the Fawkner clinic is just a taste of what is in store for Australians. Access to health care should be a right, not a charity, or a luxury. ?Defend and Extend Medicare ? Australia?, encourages all Australians who are concerned about what's happening to Medicare to think about taking part in a series of rallies that will be held across the country. It begins in Melbourne at 5.30pm on FRIDAY the 5th of September outside the State Library in Swanston Street, to highlight that the Federal government's proposed changes will destroy, not save Medicare.   EXTEND MEDICARE The single most important aspect of Medicare has been its universal nature. Every Australian, irrespective of their income, has til now, had access to medical care. The Howard government?s proposed changes to Medicare will destroy the universal nature of the scheme. It?s not good enough just to organise to defend what we have, we need to go one step further and extend universal access to health care to areas where Australians are denied access to basic health care services because they don?t have the income to purchase these services on the open market. Dental, podiatry, physiotherapy, home help, attendant care, occupational therapy, extending the optometry scheme to include the provision of spectacles, and psychological and counselling services, are some of the areas that the health care principles that underline Medicare could be extended to. Whether or not Medicare based services are extended is not a question of money, but a question of political will. Political representatives at the Federal and State level need to understand that the provision of access to health care services to everyone who needs them is a fundamental political question. The idea that health care is a right, not a charity or a luxury should be included in the Australian Constitution. This can be done by building a political movement that demands that this question be put to the Australian people in a referendum. Governments must reflect the aspirations of the people they represent. If they don?t, both parliamentary and extra-parliamentary means need to be used to ensure that they reflect the will of the people. Access to a universal, broad based Medicare scheme that incorporates services outside the one-dimensional medical model is a right that all Australians should enjoy. In order to do this, we need to organise to create a movement that can influence the current political processes. Any government or opposition party that ignores such a mass movement does so at its own peril. Unless we defend what we have and fight to have those few rights we currently enjoy extended to other sections of the health care system, we run the very real risk of losing what few rights we currently enjoy to use a universal health care system. BE AFRAID, BE VERY AFRAID BE AFRAID, BE VERY AFRAID The delivery of public and private medicine has changed dramatically in the past decade. As more and more public funds are diverted to the private sector the power of trans-national corporations to dictate health care policy to both State governments and the Federal government has increased markedly. As tax dollars that are earmarked for the public health sector are diverted to the private health sector, State and Federal government's find they don't have access to the necessary resources to pay for the public health care delivery system, consequently pressure is placed on governments to limit access to public health facilities to concession card holders, while everybody else is forced to buy private health insurance or pay for their own health care costs. Health care has become such an expensive commodity that everyone except the top 5% of income earners are not able to meet the financial costs for access to health care and even the top 2% would have trouble meeting costs for a catastrophic health care problem. Faced with this crisis, governments are being forced to pump more and more public funds into the private health care insurance industry, so that more wage earners are able to afford to take out private health insurance. Currently every year, $2.7 billion of taxpayers funds goes directly into bankrolling the public health insurance industry. While another $1 billion of potential tax income is lost to the public health care sector as high income earners who normally would pay 2.5%, instead of a 1.5% Medicare levy, who take out private health insurance, only pay a 1.5% Medicare levy.   MEDIBANK PRIVATE NEXT CAB OFF THE RANK When Medicare was established in 1984, Medibank Private was set up by the Commonwealth government to act as a player in the private health care insurance industry. Medibank Private is a publicly owned company that provides private health care insurance to more Australian's than other health insurance company. It's continued existence as a major force in the private health insurance industry (as the Commonwealth Bank did when it was in public hands) acts as a real brake on the fees and charges that private health insurance providers can charge. The Howard government intends to privatise Medibank Private in the next twelve months, removing what few cost controls that currently operate in the private health insurance industry. It's highly likely that private health insurance costs will escalate like they did in the banking sector, when Medibank Private is privatised. This will increase costs both for private consumers and for the Australian taxpayer. The privitisation of Medibank Private will result in more taxpayer's funds being diverted from the public health system. This haemorrhage of funds from the public sector will result in the establishment of a two tier health delivery system, one that provides care for concession card holders and another that allows health care consumers who can afford it to buy the best health care money can buy - as long as their health insurance providers continue to foot the bill. After their insurance runs out even those who have bought the best health care money can buy, will find themselves in an under funded, under resourced, demoralised, public health care sector that provides a basic safety net for all those Australian's who can't afford to privately insure themselves against illness.   G.A.T.T.S. IS HERE!! G.A.T.T.S. (General Agreement on Trade Tariffs and Services) is here NOW. Activists across Australia, who are concerned about the effect GATTS will have on the local manufacturing industry and the provision of services in the private and public sector need to understand that it already plays a major role in the provision of health care services in the Australian Health Care sector through the PHARMACEUTICAL BENEFITS SCHEME and THE PRIVATE HEALTH CARE SECTOR.   PHARMACEUTICAL BENEFITS SCHEME The cost of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme - the scheme where the Federal government subsidises medicines for both concession and non-concession cardholders has escalated dramatically in the past ten years. In an effort to contain costs, the Federal government is attempting to shift some of the costs involved to those Australian's who need to use medications especially the increasing number of Australian's who suffer chronic illnesses. The Federal government has been forced to do this because they are losing the battle to negotiate reasonable costs for pharmaceuticals, with a handful of trans-national corporations that exercise a monopoly over the pharmaceutical industry. Increasing taxpayer costs to fund the provision of pharmaceuticals to Australian's is a direct result of the monopoly pharmaceutical companies enjoy in the provision of medications. It is not due to over prescribing by medical practitioners, or by patients abusing the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme as the Howard government would like us to believe.   VERTICAL INTEGRATION OF PRIVATE HEALTH CARE SERVICES There is a lot of money to be made from the provision of private health care services, especially if taxpayers funds are used to bolster the private health care industry. Corporations that are involved in the provision of health care services, have over the past decade, been positioning themselves to reap the resultant windfall, when public health services are out sourced to the private sector. They know that access to the public treasury is the best way to maximise their profits in the health industry. The major problem they face is that the provision of health care in Australia is piecemeal and that general practitioners act as gatekeepers to the treasury. General practitioners decide what pathology and radiological services patients use and what specialists they refer patients to and for how long they refer a patient for. Faced with this obstacle to vertically integrating private health care services, corporations have been buying up general practices across Australia. Nearly 50% of general practitioners in West Australia work for a handful of companies and around 15% of general practices across Australia are owned by a small number of corporations. Once these corporations own general practices, those general practitioners they employ are encouraged to refer patients to pathology and radiological services they own. Patients who need hospitalisation, are treated in private hospitals they own by specialists they employ. The vertical integration of medicine - A patient exclusively using the services that a health care monopoly owns, is nearly as much a threat to the provision of universal health care in this country as the Howard government's proposed changes to the Medicare system.   HEALTH CARE ? A RIGHT, NOT A CHARITY OR A LUXURY MEDICARE ? Medicare was a universal health care system that allowed all Australians, irrespective of their income, access to a doctor. BULK BILLING ? Doctors could choose either to bill a patient directly or to bulk bill. Those doctors who bulk billed accepted 85% of a government set fee for their services. The Federal government paid the doctor directly for that service. Doctors choose to bulk bill because it decreased paperwork and administrative costs, and it eliminated bad debts. RECOMMENDED FEES ? The Federal government does not have the constitutional power to set fees. Doctors have always been able to charge whatever the "market" will permit for their services. The fees set by the federal government are recommended fees only. THE REBATE ? (The fee the government pays to the doctor.) 85% of the recommended fee. THE GAP ? The gap is the out of pocket fee that the patient pays to doctors who do not bulk bill. In some cases, the gap is greater than the rebate the patient receives back from Medicare. FUNDING ? Every Australian who pays tax, pays 1.5% of their taxable income towards the funding of Medicare. The money raised by this tax only pays for about 18% of the real cost of Medicare; the rest of the money needed comes from consolidated revenue. WHY ARE MANY MORE PRIVATE DOCTORS REFUSING TO BULK BILL? Before the Howard government was elected, bulk-billing-general-practitioner-rates hovered around 80%. They have now decreased to around 67%. The decrease in bulk billing rates is a direct result of the Liberal/National Party's ideological push to destroy the universal nature of Medicare and to transfer the cost of health care from the State to the individual. As Medicare is a popular initiative among all Australians, irrespective of what political party they vote for, the Howard government attempted to destroy Medicare by starving it of finances. They did this by holding the government recommended doctors fees below the inflation level. Doctors who bulk billed, especially those in sole practices, found that while their costs increased dramatically, their income dropped markedly. Faced with this situation and possible financial disaster, an increasing number of general practitioners have stopped bulk billing and are charging up-front fees. HOWARD'S PLANS BACKFIRED!! The Coalition's attempts to force doctors to stop bulk billing has backfired because the doctors who abandoned bulk billing in droves, were normally located in Liberal and National Party electorates. Faced with a public backlash in their own electorates, the Howard government has been forced to introduce MEDICARE CHANGES that, in all probability, if implemented will destroy bulk billing as we know it. A MANY-HEADED HYDRA!! The changes that the Howard government plans to introduce are both draconian and subtle. They are designed to force doctors in metropolitan areas to stop bulk billing, and provide a few extra crumbs for doctors in regional and rural areas to continue bulk billing concession-card holders. CONCESSION-CARD HOLDER ? A concession-card holder is a person who receives unemployment benefits, a disability support pension, an old age pension, a single parents benefit, or has a pharmaceutical concession card because of their limited income. About 40% of Australians are entitled to concession card status. WHAT DO THE CHANGES MEAN FOR YOU!! The Howard government plans to create a system of primary health care that, as in the private public hospital system, divides and creates two types of patients: those who can afford the best HealthCare money can buy, and those who have to make do with second best. Those Doctors who agree to sign onto the governments proposal (to date, most have indicated they won't) will, if they bulk bill all concession card holders who come to their Practice, be able to legally charge a Co-payment above the bulk billing rate. They will receive the bulk-billing fee directly from the Federal government and collect the Co-payment from the patient. CO-PAYMENTS ? Currently, it is illegal for a doctor to bulk bill and charge a bulk-billed patient a Co-payment. PANDORA'S BOX OPENED!! In its attempt to bolster its electoral support in regional and rural Australia, the Howard government will open a Pandora's box that will see an escalation in health care costs for both individuals and the country. Australia spends around 10% of our gross national product to pay for our health care system; this will increase to around 15% in the next few years if these changes are passed in the senate. YOU SPEAK WITH FORKED TONGUE, TOSCANO!! Coalition publications will tell you that things will improve for both individual Australians and the country if these changes are passed in the senate, and that I'm not telling you all the relevant facts. FACT 1 ? A private doctor who receives 28 dollars for one patient and 40 dollars for another patient for the same consultation will find, over time, that, as in the private public hospital system divide, a two-tier system will develop within their Practice. They will find that financial considerations will become the driving force in their Practices. Universal access to bulk billing means that the money the doctor receives for their service is based on the time they need to spend with their patient, not what the patient can afford to pay the doctor. FACT 2 ? Bulk-billing Practices will be carrying the major burden for these changes. Practices that have a high number of concession-card holders on their books will not be helped by these changes ? they face financial ruin. FACT 3 ? The introduction of a differential rebate for the same service ? one for concession-card holders and one for other patients ? will give the government the financial power it needs to force private doctors to sign up to it's new system. It will do this by increasing the rebate for concession-card holders, leaving the rate for non-concession-card holders at a fixed rate. This means that doctors who decide to bulk bill all their patients will continue to lose income and, in time, will have to either close their Practices or join the government's scheme. FACT 4 ? Those patients who think they can take out private insurance at a dollar a week to cover out-of-pocket expenses, after they?ve paid a thousand dollars up front, have been sold a very sick puppy. What insurance company is going to provide this insurance product when doctors can legally charge what ever they like? FACT 5 ? Medicare kept a brake on escalating medical costs. The changes that the Howard government wants to make to Medicare will remove that brake and allow costs for both the individual patient and the country to skyrocket. WHAT CAN I DO? Form or join a Defend and Extend Medicare group in your local federal electorate to pressure your parliamentary representative to oppose current changes and ensure that access to HealthCare in this country is a right, not a charity or a luxury. Dr Joseph Toscano / Joint National Spokesperson for Defend and Extend Medicare - Australia E-mail: defendmedicare@yahoo.com.au, PO Box 5035, Alphington 3078, Melbourne, Australia Tel: 0439 395 489 REMEMBER IF YOU DON¹T FIGHT TO RETAIN AND EXTEND WHAT WE HAVE, WE WILL SOON FIND THAT WE WILL LOSE WHAT OUR PARENTS AND GRANDPARENTS SUCCESSFULLY FOUGHT FOR. Dr Joseph Toscano / Ms. Julie Jones / Mr Brendan Bride, National Convenors Defend and Extend Medicare.

FastCounter by bCentral