Newly released documents raise more questions about the scope of Medicare Outsourcing plans
Last year the Government sought expressions of interest from the private sector about outsourcing the Medicare payments system. Given the Government’s attack on our universal healthcare system the announcement generated significant concern that the process might be a trojan horse for the full privatisation of Medicare - hurting jobs, services and privacy.
We commenced a community campaign and the Government responded by denying that they are privatising Medicare. However, this week we received the results of a Freedom of Information request on the expression of interest process.
These documents reveal that the private companies that expressed interest in the work asked to take over more Medicare work than originally planned – and that the Department of Health were at least considering giving in to these requests.
In addition to calculating entitlements, processing claims and making payments, companies asked if they could have call centres, registers and other processing. An internal briefing note from mid-2014 said that the Health Department would ‘wait until we see what the commercial sector is offering and then make choices based on the benefits and risks of having a range of DHS services provided by a commercial operator’.
These issues raise significant doubts about the Government’s assurances about Australia’s largest database of medical information staying inside the public service. We will be writing to the minister to seek a meeting and his assurance that this priceless and critical database and Medicare administration will remain within the public service.
In the meantime please encourage members, friends and family to register their support for Medicare and Medicare workers at www.stopmedicareselloff.com.au
Last year the Government sought expressions of interest from the private sector about outsourcing the Medicare payments system. Given the Government’s attack on our universal healthcare system the announcement generated significant concern that the process might be a trojan horse for the full privatisation of Medicare - hurting jobs, services and privacy.
We commenced a community campaign and the Government responded by denying that they are privatising Medicare. However, this week we received the results of a Freedom of Information request on the expression of interest process.
These documents reveal that the private companies that expressed interest in the work asked to take over more Medicare work than originally planned – and that the Department of Health were at least considering giving in to these requests.
In addition to calculating entitlements, processing claims and making payments, companies asked if they could have call centres, registers and other processing. An internal briefing note from mid-2014 said that the Health Department would ‘wait until we see what the commercial sector is offering and then make choices based on the benefits and risks of having a range of DHS services provided by a commercial operator’.
These issues raise significant doubts about the Government’s assurances about Australia’s largest database of medical information staying inside the public service. We will be writing to the minister to seek a meeting and his assurance that this priceless and critical database and Medicare administration will remain within the public service.
In the meantime please encourage members, friends and family to register their support for Medicare and Medicare workers at www.stopmedicareselloff.com.au
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