Medical researchers vow to lobby for $20b fund amid GP co-payment confusion

Updated

The confusion about the proposed GP co-payment is causing concern within the medical research community.

The Government is considering backing away from the proposed $7 co-payment because it will not be passed by the Senate.

The co-payment will partly fund the proposed $20 billion medical research fund.

The former president of the Association of Australian Medical Research Institutes, Brendan Crabb, said the organisation did not have a position on the co-payment but did say the uncertainty was a worry.

"Certainly there's concern that if the means by which it was to be funded doesn't come through, that threatens it," Professor Crabb said.

The chair of the Medical Research Future Fund Action Group (MRFF), Peter Scott, said the confusion was delaying the fund being established.

"The co-payment has taken a lot of oxygen, a lot of attention away from that," Mr Scott said.

"It's certainly prolonged the discussions at a political level but we remain fixed in our view in advocating that the MRFF really should be done.

"If it's not funded by a co-payment it should be funded by another means."

Calls for fund to be established in 'next week or two'

Professor Crabb called for the proposed $20 billion medical research fund to be established "in the next week or two before the Christmas break".

"There is such a momentum behind the medical research fund and what it can offer this country that there's a tremendous opportunity, while there is that groundswell of support, to make progress towards bringing it into being," Professor Crabb said.

He said medical researchers were willing to lobby extensively next week in Canberra during the Parliament's last four sitting days before the Christmas break.

"We come to Canberra very regularly," he said.

"We're ready and willing and able to be there every day between now and when Canberra shuts down for the year, so there's no lack of willingness on our behalf."

Mr Scott echoed those sentiments, saying "if it needs to happen, we'll do it".

Mr Scott is also a senior executive at investment bank UBS.

He argued the research fund would provide significant health and economic benefits, including providing research that would help prolong life expectancy and allow people to work longer and therefore boost productivity.

He said the fund's work would provide solutions to rising health costs and keep the nation's top medical minds working in Australia rather than head overseas.

Abbott still wants patients charged

The push to establish the fund comes after a heated day in Parliament, where the GP co-payment was hotly debated.

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten said the Government had adopted a range of positions on the GP co-payment over a 24-hour period.

He told Parliament there were initial reports the Government would scrap the co-payment, then the Employment Minister vowed to keep the policy and, finally, the Health Minister said different options were under consideration.

"Isn't this just the latest example of an incompetent Government in utter and complete chaos?" Mr Shorten asked during Question Time.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott replied that he still wanted to charge patients to visit the doctor.

"We think there should be price signals in the system. We think that's good policy," Mr Abbott said.

Mr Abbott said negotiations about the co-payment would continue with crossbench senators.

Speaker Bronwyn Bishop ejected a record 18 Labor MPs from Parliament, accusing the Opposition of deliberately trying to disrupt Question Time.

Ms Bishop removed 10 Opposition MPs from the chamber on Wednesday.

The Speaker told Parliament that Labor's behaviour was unacceptable and she had no choice but to take action.

Topics: government-and-politics, federal-government, health, healthcare-facilities, doctors-and-medical-professionals, australia

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