There’s a time and place for bacon, but does it solve anything in the end?
In season three of the Great Australian Bake Off there was a contestant called Robert Harwood. He was a terrific baker. Check him out here.
Rob’s most famous moment came in episode seven, when he concocted a bake he wasn’t particularly happy with and at the last moment he covered it in a certain pork product.
“I panicked and threw bacon at it,” he told the judges.
And why wouldn’t you? Who doesn’t love bacon? Even at inappropriate moments.
I’m getting a Rob Harwood vibe from Anthony Albanese and his health sidekick Mark Butler right now.
Who doesn’t love money being thrown at the health system?
The question, of course, is whether this particular “bacon” is the right pork to be throwing at this particular bake?
So far this campaign season – that’s what it is, regardless of the lack of a firm election date – Labor has increased its cheaper medicines funding to almost $10 billion since 2022, thrown $644 million at new urgent care clinics, $8.5 billion at a new Medicare package, and will now spend $689 million over forward estimates to lower the cost of scripts.
That’s a bucketload of bacon.
But I, like many other Australians, have two questions.
Where is the money coming from? And, are these big-dollar programs actually going to solve anything?
The answer to the first has been a blanket response along the lines of “Jim Chalmers will tell you on Tuesday”.
Given Treasurer Chalmers has already said he’ll be unveiling a deficit of close to $27 billion, my guess is the bacon is coming from the pig called Australian Government Securities.
But, I’m not one of those people who thinks government debt is a bad thing. Besides, compared with some of our sibling OECD countries, we’re not in too shabby a position. At least we’re not Germany, the UK, Canada, France, the US, or god forbid, Japan.
Source: International Monetary Fund (IMF), Fiscal Monitor April 2023: On the Path to Policy Normalization (Washington, DC: IMF, April 2023), Tables A7 and A8.
The answer to the second question is more fraught.
Over on our sister publication, The Medical Republic, you’ll find an article by Dr Ken McCroary, a GP from Campbelltown.
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Dr McCroary has a strong opinion about the bipartisan promises to spend either $8.5 billion or $9 billion, depending on who wins, on boosting bulk billing, for example.
“Certainly, any funding boost to general practice and primary care in Australia is welcome; however, one easily tires when the fine print shows this is just another Band-Aid and not a significant structural solution to an increasingly outdated healthcare system,” he says.
“Universal healthcare in Australia no longer exists.
“Health in Australia has become a discretionary spend, thanks to the cost-of-living crisis and the Medicare freeze.
“The only way to keep my doors open is to privately bill a proportion of our patients every day.
“A minor increase in billing incentives, while leaving the rebate unchanged, seems aimed at incentivising the six-minute medicine merry-go-round, which all evidence shows is bad for patient health, bad for taxpayers, bad for the public health system, and bad for the working GPs and their communities.
“For me to keep the doors open under this bulk-billing regime, I’d have to see 10 patients an hour, compared to three patients an hour privately charged with a gap fee, which is unfortunately ever-increasing.
“Mandating that GPs cannot access the maximum Medicare rebate for their patients, like every other specialty, unless they sign up to commit to permanent pure bulk billing, will do nothing except further dissuade graduates from a career in general practice and exacerbate our professional crisis.”
Strong words, but they highlight the concern that political parties are throwing money in such a way that may please the public who, let’s face it, are concerned with just a couple of things – is a GP available now, is that GP at least free or cheap, and how long do I have to sit in the ED before I get seen?
Short-term gains at the expense of any long-term, real reform.
As for the Coalition, they are yet to have an original thought in the lead up to the federal election – they have followed each Labor announcement with one matching it.
It’s almost a concession that Labor’s got better ideas, at least in the health space, than they do.
But honestly, is that saying much at this point?