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Speaker 1: We know that today members of the Australian Health Service

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Speaker 1: Alliance will Up until this point, they stood to lose

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Speaker 1: their private health insurance due to a stash with Health

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Speaker 1: scott but at the eleventh hour the parties struck an

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Speaker 1: in principal agreement ensuring that those members can continue to

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Speaker 1: access care at Healthscobe hospitals without additional out of pocket expenses.

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Speaker 1: One Territorian who's certainly been following this really closely and

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Speaker 1: is a member of the Australian Health Service Alliance, Ken Moffatt,

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Speaker 1: joins me on the line.

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Speaker 2: Get a Ken, Good morning, Katie. How are you really well?

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Speaker 1: Ken? What is your reaction to the news? How did

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Speaker 1: you find out about it?

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Speaker 2: Well? I found out about it about ten o'clock last night,

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Speaker 2: when Crystal sent me an email saying that there was

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Speaker 2: some message there. I must say that I did get

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Speaker 2: a personal text from the CEO of Queensland's Country Health

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Speaker 2: telling me that something had happened, et cetera. But the

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Speaker 2: only thing that's a little bit disappointing is that I've

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Speaker 2: received no formal notification and I therefore assume very few

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Speaker 2: people have received formal notification of the fact that the

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Speaker 2: issue is resolved or in the process of being resolved,

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Speaker 2: so don't panic and don't change health phones. It's been

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Speaker 2: extraordinary that we're going to message back in early January

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Speaker 2: saying that they'd torn up the contracts and the option

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Speaker 2: was there for us to change health phones. But nobody's

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Speaker 2: ever done anything since then. So I think it's a

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Speaker 2: little bit disappointing because I think a lot of people

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Speaker 2: don't really know that, in actual fact, it's been resolved.

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Speaker 2: And I think it's fantastic that it has been resolved,

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Speaker 2: and at least it gives some surety for people who

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Speaker 2: are here to know that they can still fully utilize

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Speaker 2: down private host them.

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Speaker 1: Can you think they'd be screaming it from the rooftops?

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Speaker 1: And I mean, I want to make it clear that

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Speaker 1: this doesn't like, it doesn't mean that the maternity services

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Speaker 1: are going to continue on, because I don't want to

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Speaker 1: confuse people.

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Speaker 2: Know it's a different issue.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a very different issue. But you'd think they'd

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Speaker 1: be screaming it from the rooftop.

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Speaker 2: I would have thought. So, I mean, it is a

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Speaker 2: great breakthrough that they've achieved it, you know, the fact

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Speaker 2: that it's gone really to eleven fifty nine PM before

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Speaker 2: we fell off a cliff. Is a little disconcerting because

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Speaker 2: a lot of people are really concerned about potential for

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Speaker 2: losing access to private healthcare in the hospital system.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, that's exactly right now. I mean, any ideas what

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Speaker 1: you know, what the in principal element might be, or

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Speaker 1: whether there's going to be any you know, any areas

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Speaker 1: that still sort of cause concern.

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Speaker 2: No, I've got no further information. I've received nothing, you know.

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Speaker 2: I presume that a deal has been done so that

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Speaker 2: we can move forward. I mean, I think it's good

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Speaker 2: from the perspective of we now have some surety. But

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Speaker 2: I think this whole debacle with Healscope, which I think

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Speaker 2: as much bigger national implications as to why we're allowing

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Speaker 2: things like private equity funds and to a more recent example,

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Speaker 2: private health insurers running our hospital system, I think has

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Speaker 2: some serious questions associated with it, and I don't think

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Speaker 2: that they're being particularly well addressed. So everybody's up for

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Speaker 2: joy about the fact that this has been resolved, but

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Speaker 2: it leaves a couple of things in question. In fact,

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Speaker 2: if you were a bit of a cynic, you might

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Speaker 2: suggest that part of the reason that They finally suggested

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Speaker 2: that the do was okay, was because they may get

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Speaker 2: more money when they try and sell out the hospitals

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Speaker 2: in the healthcape sphere. But that would have to be

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Speaker 2: very cynical of me to do that.

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Speaker 1: I'm a constant cynic ken That's okay.

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Speaker 2: But it's still as I raised to you in my

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Speaker 2: last last call, it still leaves me with a very

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Speaker 2: sound note about the potential for the future of down

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Speaker 2: Private Hospital. We know that Brookfield are trying to sell

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Speaker 2: up health Scope. We know that Healthscope are having all

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Speaker 2: sorts of problems with debt and with profitability, and we

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Speaker 2: know that there are going to be several hospitals in

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Speaker 2: New South Wales and perhaps other areas that are going

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Speaker 2: to close. We know that there are hawks out there

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Speaker 2: trying to see what they can take the creen of

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Speaker 2: the crop in terms of buying up the really good hospitals.

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Speaker 2: And the thing that I still don't know, and the

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Speaker 2: thing that I still put out there is a challenge

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Speaker 2: both for the NT Health and government and the national

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Speaker 2: politicians and the Health Department is can we guarantee the

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Speaker 2: future of Darwen Private Hospital? And I think it's a

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Speaker 2: really really big question and I do hope that Stephen

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Speaker 2: Edgington has brought this up with Leaf Andociario because I

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Speaker 2: think it's really really important that the government have a

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Speaker 2: really firm footing on the fact that Darwin Private Hospital

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Speaker 2: is not at risk of being closed because I don't

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Speaker 2: know which profitability level. I don't know who does, but

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Speaker 2: if it's one of the basket case profitabilities, then it

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Speaker 2: could be a casualty in this whole sellout, which may

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Speaker 2: take up to six months. But the difficulty would be

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Speaker 2: is if Darwen Private Hospital closed, it would close for

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Speaker 2: probably at least three to six months before any rectification

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Speaker 2: could occur. Imagine the impact on the people who live

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Speaker 2: in Darwin. I mean, look at the police, look at

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Speaker 2: the military. There'd be people wanting to leave the territory

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Speaker 2: in drove if they did not have access to a

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Speaker 2: private hospital.

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Speaker 1: It'd be terrible and ken you know the thing that

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Speaker 1: I sort of can't get passed at this point. As well,

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Speaker 1: Last week we then find out that private health insurance

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Speaker 1: is going up by an average of three point seventy

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Speaker 1: three percent in April after those talks between the federal

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Speaker 1: government and insurers. I mean, like it, it's hard to

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Speaker 1: not feel quite annoyed by that.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, come off a procedure myself, which is one of

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Speaker 2: the reasons I got very interested in this whole exercise

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Speaker 2: where I had a day procedure done at the private

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Speaker 2: hospital last week, and one of the things that absolutely

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Speaker 2: astounded me was the high cost of the gap fee

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Speaker 2: for the doctor and the anesthetist. And when I look

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Speaker 2: back at previous times that I've been to either the

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Speaker 2: private hospital or the private center in Vangland Drive, I've

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Speaker 2: not paid anywhere near those sort of gap fees, but

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Speaker 2: you know, within the so called parameters of what they're

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Speaker 2: able to charge as a gap fee. But you know,

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Speaker 2: this was day surgery, and you know, I'm at the

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Speaker 2: moment I'm out of pocket over at Grand and I

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Speaker 2: just thought, well, that's not happened in the past, and

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Speaker 2: so I don't know what's going on. Our health system

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Speaker 2: seems to be in a hell of a lot more

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Speaker 2: crisis than I anticipated, and I think there's a lot

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Speaker 2: more at stake here. I mean, you know, I remember

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Speaker 2: back in the eighties when having private health Insuran it

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Speaker 2: gave you a guaranteed eighty five percent return on everything,

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Speaker 2: and you know, it was simple and we didn't have

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Speaker 2: many care back then either, but it was just it

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Speaker 2: just seems that everything is blowing out cost wise, and

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Speaker 2: I mean, I don't know how people are going to cope.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, y're spot on. I mean it is so like

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Speaker 1: it's so expensive for a lot of families. They're probably

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Speaker 1: thinking to themselves with is it still cost efficient for

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Speaker 1: me to keep paying for private health? Which is a

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Speaker 1: real shame because you don't, you know, like quite often

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Speaker 1: you don't know whether you're going to need these kinds

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Speaker 1: of things until you're in a really serious situation where

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Speaker 1: then you do.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. And the other counter to that is the more

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Speaker 2: people who leave the private health system puts more pressure

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Speaker 2: on the public health system, which is in crisis from

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Speaker 2: A to B the CBD.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, you're sport on, Ken. I really appreciate your time

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Speaker 1: this morning as always, mate. Thank you for keeping us

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Speaker 1: on to these issues.

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Speaker 2: The pressure up on making sure that Darwin Private Hospital

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Speaker 2: does not close. Ask as many people as you can,

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Speaker 2: but people need to get serious about the fact that

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Speaker 2: it's not going to close because they want to be

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Speaker 2: doing it before it gets there.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, Ken, thank you, Thanks mate. We'll talk to you

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Speaker 1: again soon. Thank you.

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Speaker 2: Okay, thankye now.