LIEBMANN:
Prime Minister, good morning to you.
PRIME MINISTER:
Good morning Steve.
LIEBMANN:
Would you agree that our conversation this morning is some what academic given that Labor, the Democrats and the Greens say they're going to block this in the Senate?
PRIME MINISTER:
No I don't, I don't think you know exactly what's going to happen with the minor parties and the independents until the legislation actually gets there. Labor is basing its reaction on the quite absurd claim that what we announced yesterday is the death of Medicare and I suppose that's what you have to say if you don't have an alternative policy but how on earth you can claim that an injection of over $900 million over four years into the existing system represents the death of that system is completely beyond me. The pillars of Medicare have been enhanced by the announcement I made last week regarding public hospital funding, a 17 per cent real increase. That further reinforces, provided the states come to the party, the notion of free treatment in a public hospital, which is one of the great pillars of Medicare. The other great pillar is the universal availability of the Medicare rebate, that is also reinforced and in no way touched. So how on earth the Labor Party can say this is the death of Medicare and on top of that what we've done is to address the problem and the problem is that in many areas because of a shortage of doctors bulk billing is not available, even for pensioners and people on concession cards. There are many areas of rural Australia and outer-metropolitan Australia where even if you're a pensioner or a card holder you can't find a doctor who will bulk bill you and what we have tried to do is through two things, providing more incentives for doctors to bulk bill those people, and also through increasing the number of doctors coming on stream and also dramatically increasing the number of practice nurses. We are addressing it. So can I simply say to your viewers that this idea of what we've announced yesterday is the death knell of Medicare, and that is just absurd sophistry from a party that doesn't have an alternative policy of its own.
LIEBMANN:
So Prime Minister you reject the criticism that this is going to hit the hard up and the sick and that low to middle income earners will be severely disadvantaged?
PRIME MINISTER:
Can I just tackle that first, in the hard up and the sick are going to get hit - wrong. It's actually going to provide greater incentives for doctors to go on bulk billing low income people, it's going to provide greater incentives, it's the opposite of hitting them, it's helping them.
LIEBMANN:
So you can guarantee that this is going to be a fairer, more accessible health system?
PRIME MINISTER:
I believe it will be a fairer more accessible health system. No health system in the world is perfect, but ours is better than any others and the reason why it's better than any others is that it's built on two things, it's built on Medicare and also the private health structures and you need both because as with schools the more people who are treated in the private system the load is therefore taken off the public system.
LIEBMANN:
Alright, let's cut to the chase, is a visit to the doctor going to cost more?
PRIME MINISTER:
There's nothing in this package to make it cost more overall. In the short term it will cost a lot less upfront, it'll cost a lot less upfront. If you're an average family now and you're not being bulk billed, in future you will pay far less upfront, instead of having to pay say $35 to the doctor and then queue up in a Medicare office in your lunch hour to get the Medicare rebate, the $25, you'll simply pay $10 to the doctor, swipe your card and you're off. And that's it.
LIEBMANN:
That's if you're an average family. What if you're a middle income suburban family?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well if you're a middle income suburban family and you are not being bulk billed that is exactly what will happen and there is nothing in this package to suggest that that $10 should become $15 or $20. Now in addition what you will be able to do is for the first time you'll be able to take out a private health insurance policy, even if you don't have private health insurance now, you can take out a separate policy for about $50 a year to cover all of your out of pocket expenses over and above $1,000. So you will have the convenience of paying less upfront and swiping your card and you'll also have the capacity to take out a private health insurance policy to cover everything over $1,000. And that's not just the gap the doctor charges you for a GP consultation, it includes pathology and a whole lot of other out of hospital expenses.
LIEBMANN:
But Prime Minister if there is no limit on gap charges doesn't that mean a doctor is free to put his fee up?
PRIME MINISTER:
Steve, there's been no limit on gap charges up until now, there is none now. See a lot of the reactions of the Labor Party and some others on this has been to declare things exist now that don't. There's no gap, there's no limit on what the doctors' gap can be right now. It's always been the case, from the very beginning of Medicare by the Labor Party 19 years ago it's always been the case that a doctor could charge a gap.
LIEBMANN:
Alright.
PRIME MINISTER:
That was explicitly allowed for. I mean people talk as if this is a new concept, I mean your viewers will know that what I'm saying is right, all of them, the millions of your viewers who don't get bulk billing will know that everything I'm saying is absolutely right.
LIEBMANN:
Prime Minister, just on a final question, at the end of this week you're flying to Texas for another meeting with President Bush. Still no weapons of mass destruction, no Saddam Hussein, no irrefutable link between Iraq and international terrorism. Don't some people have the right to say we were conned?
PRIME MINISTER:
No they don't. It's unrealistic to expect that all of the evidence of weapons of mass destruction would have been discovered within...
LIEBMANN:
They haven't found any.
PRIME MINISTER:
No, well I think there is a lot of circumstantial evidence around and a lot of inspections are being undertaken. I didn't think for a moment that you'd find it under a sign on the road side saying weapons of mass destruction look here. I mean they were hiding the stuff from the United Nations inspectors and you remember the great lengths they went to. The question of whether Saddam Hussein is dead or alive, I don't know whether he's dead or alive, what I know is he's no more the president and dictator of Iraq and that is a very good thing. And in the long run whether he's dead or alive I don't know, I think as far as links are concerned there's more evidence that's become available over the past few days that I was aware of, that suggestion of the visit to Baghdad by the al-Qaeda representative is not something that I, or to my knowledge President Bush or Mr Blair had been aware of prior to the commencement of the invasion. So I don't believe people would feel conned, I think they feel very happy that Iraq now has the opportunity of building a democratic future.
LIEBMANN:
Prime Minister thanks for your time.
PRIME MINISTER:
You're welcome.
[ends]