Health Legislation Amendment (Improving Choice and Transparency for Private Health Consumers) Bill 2026
Mr McCORMACK (Riverina) (13:14): This legislation is about health, and, certainly, I want to acknowledge the member for Pearce and her contributions to the parliament. What she does and how she does it—she's somebody who shows a lot of pluck, and I do absolutely applaud you, Member for Pearce. You are an inspiration; you truly are.
I want to also acknowledge the member for Lyons, the Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care, for attending a 5 March professionalism framework launch of the Council of Presidents of Medical Colleges. That particular meeting, a very important one, was addressed by Associate Professor Kerin Fielding from Wagga Wagga, who is president of the Council of Presidents of Medical Colleges.
She's also an orthopaedic surgeon. She laid bare the difficulties with regional health as opposed to metropolitan services. The member for Mallee, the shadow minister for regional health, has also just given a fine speech to the House of Representatives about the issues for people in country areas accessing health.
The Health Legislation Amendment (Improving Choice and Transparency for Private Health Consumers) Bill 2026 is a bill which makes two key changes to Australia's private health system. First, it brings in transparency by default, with amendments to allow the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing to publish information on the Medical Costs Finder about the medical fees charged by medical practitioners, including specialists and GPs, and the likely out-of-pocket costs patients will incur through their private healthcare experience.
That is a good and wise step. The second change contained in this bill is focused on regulating private health insurance premiums. It requires insurers to seek ministerial approval for premiums for new products and for existing products where certain changes are suggested.
I'm not against ministers having more powers. In fact, I've spoken a number of times in recent months about government ministers—Labor ministers—abrogating their responsibilities when it comes to actually doing their jobs. The jobs of ministers should not be fulfilled by the bureaucrats in the Public Service.
Whilst we have some outstanding public servants—I acknowledge that—they are not the ones who have the final say and the imprimatur on a piece of legislation coming before the House or the Senate. They are not the ones who make the calls and the decisions. All too often, I believe, this government is outsourcing more and more of the work that should be done by ministers, who have the final say.
The buck has to stop with them. The second change to which I referred broadly aligns with the current process for premium changes for existing products while enlarging ministerial oversight of premium setting of new private health insurance products. The change is attempting to address the risk of product phoenixing, where an existing insurance product can be closed and an identical or similar new product then opened at a higher premium, skirting and getting around the requirement for premium change approval.
The coalition is not going to stand in the way of this, because what we want to see is people being able to access help, certainly in regional areas. Particularly at the moment, as the member for Mallee outlined, there are so many people who cannot access their health diagnosis. They cannot get to their doctors' appointments at the practice or the surgery simply because they can't afford to pay for the fuel—that's if they could even fill up their tank, because, at the moment, we've got a crisis.
We've got a national crisis with the availability of fuel. There are more than 600 petrol stations which are out of fuel, and that is causing problems, particularly in regional Australia, and particularly for chronically ill people—and even for those who just need to see their doctor because they may have got an overnight sniffle, or worse—and that's not good.
That is not good. I refer to that 5 March gathering where Associate Professor Fielding talked about the issues and the vast difference between accessing health services in country areas and elsewhere. She said: Across Australia, too many people are doing the same, travelling long distances or unable to travel, worried about accessing the care they need.
She was referring to questions her 90-year-old mother had raised: How much will this cost me? What if I can't afford it? How long will I have to wait and how far will I have to travel?
Associate Professor Fielding went on to say: They're getting bills they didn't expect, or they're avoiding a referral altogether because they don't know what it will cost. The Minister recently told Parliament that over 800,000 Australians delayed specialist care last year because of affordability. That is a serious problem.
Australia has one of the best health systems in the world and every Australian should be able to access affordable, high-quality specialist care without risking financial hardship. I don't think there's anybody in the parliament who would disagree with Associate Professor Fielding's remarks. She said: But many patients face a different barrier.
They can't see a specialist at any price, because there isn't one locally. Rural Australia has 2.7 doctors per thousand people compared to Cities which have 4.3. Potentially preventable hospitalisations are 30 per cent higher in outer regional areas and 70 per cent higher in remote communities.
Thirty per cent of the country's population are too often overlooked, and for too long, our health system has been built around metropolitan centres. The consequences of that are felt every day in regional communities. The communities that grow and provide our food and much more!
And she's right. Ms Aldred: Hear, hear! Mr McCORMACK: I hear the member for Monash saying, 'Hear, hear!' This was a very good speech.
It was a shame that more people weren't there to listen to it. The member for Lyons, the Assistant Minister for Health and Aged Care, was there, and I hope she took on board—I'm sure she would have; she's a person of good intent—the wise words of Associate Professor Fielding, who then added: Patients need two things from us: high-quality care they can afford and high-quality care they can actually access.
Her husband, Dr Joe McGirr, is well known to many people in Wagga Wagga as the state member but also through his deep and longstanding involvement in local health. Between them, they are a formidable pair; I acknowledge that. They, like me, want the very best for Wagga Wagga and the wider Riverina for health care, for health services.
That's why, as Deputy Prime Minister, I established the Murray-Darling Medical Schools Network—and I know Bendigo is in that, as is Mildura, Shepparton, Dubbo, Orange and Wagga Wagga. That is going to not fill every gap but certainly go a long way towards providing, in most if not all of those campuses, 30 new doctors every year once they start to graduate. Some of those campuses are at different rates in the course than others.
The one at Wagga Wagga is three years in; we've recently opened it. Dr Mike Freelander, the member for Macarthur, was there, in his role here, to help me open that; he is well respected in the medical field both here and outside this building. Getting back to Associate Professor Fielding, she said on 5 March: I'm pleased to announce that today we are publicly releasing the CPMC Professional Framework on Ethical Billing and Fee Transparency.
It's all to do with this piece of legislation before us; it's about transparency. It's about making sure that carers, parents, patients, doctors and everyone across the board and across the system know what is going to be charged and what they are getting for the fees they are paying. All 16 medical colleges have endorsed the framework, and that's to be commended because it was very regional focused.
I have to say, many of the colleges are very much metropolitan based. As Associate Professor Fielding said: That unity sends an important message—that Professionalism includes how we communicate and are transparent about cost. It was an outstanding speech; it truly was.
I've heard a lot of good speeches in this place, both here in the House of Representatives and elsewhere, in the committee rooms in this building, but this was one of the best because it got to the nub of what's really important, and that is cost, transparency, accessibility and availability. It's all of the things that we talk about as regional members when we get up to address the difference between health services in regional and peri-urban centres and what is available smack bang in our inner-city electorates.
I truly don't think that city based MPs understand the hardships our people, our constituents, have to endure to get proper affordability and accessibility, moreover, to health services. In 2026, it's just not good enough. Professor Fielding said that she welcomed the government's efforts to strengthen transparency through the Medical Costs Finder, which is part of this legislation, 'as transparency supports trust', but—and this is really interesting—she said: 'But transparency alone will not solve affordability.
We need multi-lever reform. We need investment in public outpatient services and Medicare rebates that reflect modern care as well as expanded specialist training.' That's what she said, and I would say that it's simply not good enough for the Prime Minister to keep waving around that green and gold Medicare card of his and say, 'This is all you'll need,' because it's not right.
It's just not entirely truthful. Unless that Medicare card comes with his credit card or debit card or some other card, it's going to actually dig into the person's hard-earned—their own money—so the message he is sending is just not correct. It's all well and good for the Minister for Health and Ageing to talk about all of the Medicare urgent care after-hours clinics and surgeries and what they're doing in that space, but, if you actually look at where those clinics are being established, I'll tell you what, they're not in non-Labor seats, or, if they are, they're seats that Labor wants to add to their big majority.
This isn't right because medical help shouldn't discriminate. It shouldn't discriminate against those people in regional seats that just don't happen to have a member with an electorate office adorned with red. It just shouldn't be the case.
It's the same with mobile telephone towers. They should be going on a fair and equitable basis to where there is a need. When it comes to medical help, everywhere there is a need.
There is a need for better services, more GPs and more specialists. Professor Fielding is certainly working towards that end, as is her husband, as is the shadow minister for regional health—the member for Mallee—who gave an outstanding speech and spelled out the issues at hand here. I know that everyone on this side is concerned about regional health affordability and accessibility.
I know, in my heart of hearts, that those sitting opposite would be too, but they're the government and they have the ability to do something about it. They have the ability to find the solutions and to be fairer when it comes to accessibility to health services, certainly in remote and regional Australia and those outer-city suburban areas, which are not necessarily places where you see crops growing and stock grazing.
Regional Australia feeds the country and it's time that we were given our fair share when it comes to health services, health accessibility and the sort of medical support that cities tend to take for granted.