Health imaging workers tackle Coalition ‘promise’ on Medicare   


    The Australian
    April 20,


The political firestorm over the Medicare freeze has reignited three weeks out from the budget, with radiologists, sonographers and diagnostic imaging providers escalating their campaign for Medicare rebates to increase.

Tensions between the sector and the Turnbull government have emerged on several fronts, with radiologists also fighting restrictions proposed by a Medicare review taskforce and using a Senate committee to call for greater access to expensive MRI services.

It is reminiscent of the broader industry response to health cuts and reforms in the Coalition’s first term, which Malcolm Turnbull acknowledged had provided “fertile ground” for Labor’s so-called ­Mediscare campaign.

The Australian Diagnostic Imaging Association this week erected a prominent billboard at Sydney airport, with a photo of Mr Turnbull, warning “the government has until 1 July to make good on its election commitment to make Medicare fairer for patients needing X-rays and scans”.   

This follows 10 weeks of advertising on pay TV, regional stations in marginal electorates and YouTube, calling for all rebates to be subject to indexation from next fin­ancial year.

The ADIA campaign has the support of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Radiologists and the Australasian So­n­ographers Assoc­iation.

The commitment had been made by the Prime Minister, along with a separate promise to the pathology sector, in a mid-­campaign attempt to limit the damage from Mediscare, only for plans to change after the election. The last budget began to thaw the rebate freeze but not for all ser­vices and not immediately.

A spokesman for Health Minister Greg Hunt yesterday said the commitment had to either keep the bulk-billing incentive or ­restore indexation and “we’ve ­actually done both”.

“We are retaining the bulk-billing incentive and indexing ­targeted diagnostic imaging ser­vices including mammography, fluoroscopy, CT scans and ­interventional procedures from 1 July, 2020 — for the first time since 2004,” the spokesman said.

Mr Hunt has largely healed the rift with various professional bodies offended by the Coalition’s first-term policies. He has also revived the reform process, particularly in private health, and had some success negotiating a public hospital funding agreement.

When the ADIA launched its campaign in February, Mr Hunt pointed to radiologists’ salaries and also lashed out at the “huge, very, very wealthy companies” involved. “I should probably name them: I-MED, Primary, Sonic,” Mr Hunt said in a radio interview.

“Primary’s got a $2 billion share market value, Sonic has a $10bn value. They’ve very, very, very, very, very profitable companies. What they want is even more from the government. We just added, in the last budget, $2bn over 10 years to their Medicare payments. For them, it wasn’t enough.

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