Turnbull continues Medicare privatisation… no doubt about it
The Turnbull government has taken an extraordinary step in the privatisation of Medicare, with the decision to hand over some of Australia’s most sensitive and confidential health data to a privately run, for profit, operator.
Shadow health minister Catherine King said the Liberals’ anticipated announcement today that Telstra will be given control of the private medical details of millions of Australians, by being awarded the contract for the national cancer registry is a clear signal of the Coalition’s privatisation intentions.
“The decision transfers control of such sensitive data as the Victorian Cervical Cytology Registry (VCCR), the National Human Papillomavirus Vaccination Program Register (NHVPR), follow up programs for the National Bowel Cancer Screening Program (NBCSP), and the South Australian Cervix Screening Registry (SACSR) from not-for-profit charities, to a multinational telecommunications giant,” King said.
“Data held on these registries includes some of Australia’s most sensitive and deeply personal health data, such as pap smear results and bowel cancer screening.
“Turnbull government needs to come clean.”
“The Turnbull government needs to explain how Australians’ personal data will be kept secure.
“Today’s announcement comes just months after it was revealed Department of Health officials had been working in secret for 18 months on plans to privatise the Medicare payments system,” she said.
In Senate Estimates earlier this year, departmental officials confirmed a $5m/20 person task force has been established to advance the privatisation project, which was described as examining the “commercial possibilities” of the Medicare payments system.
“The whole process has been kept secret from the Australian public and has not been registered on AusTender,” the shadow minister said. “The Turnbull government needs to come clean about what type of companies will be managing our personal data.
“Will it be private health insurers?
“The big banks?
“Today’s announcement confirms the Turnbull government is determined to press ahead with plans that could jeopardise the patient data of every Australian.
“Liberals’ assault on Medicare and universal health care must stop.”
“Despite protests from the minister, it is clear, yet again, these decisions go way beyond simply ‘digitising’ the Medicare payments system.
“It confirms, yet again, that the Turnbull government is determined to see these essential, and highly confidential functions, delivered for profit, and not with the best interests of patients in mind.
“Today’s revelations confirm after spending their first two years in office trying to kill Medicare, the Liberals are determined, if re-elected, to spend their next term in office trying to sell it.
“No one wants Australia to go down the path of an American-style two-tiered health system.
“The Liberals’ assault on Medicare and universal health care must stop,” she said.
