Illawarra nurses are supporting a new campaign opposing the state government’s move towards an American-style health system.
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The NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association has launched the campaign, Patients Before Profits, to highlight its concerns ahead of next month’s state election.
The campaign claims that US patients are forking out thousands for common procedures - such as $40,000 to have a baby delivered; $105,000 for a hernia procedure; $103,000 for prostate removal and more than $1.5million for a liver transplant.
According to the campaign material, US parents are forced to pay almost $4700 for their 10- to 19-year-old child’s broken leg while a 25- to 40-year-old will be $7666 out of pocket for a broken arm.
NSWNMA regional representative Lisa Kremmer said the NSW Liberal-National government was paving the way for the ‘‘Americanisation’’ of the state’s health system.
‘‘We are running this campaign to inform the community about the risks in privatising the public health system,’’ she said.
‘‘In Australia we have a world-class public health system that is in danger of being eroded into a heavily privatised system like in the US.
‘‘Our state government is already pushing ahead with privatisation – for instance in the Illawarra as the result of privatisation of the port, funding is going to a private/public partnership at Bulli Hospital.
‘‘There’s also concerns that there are moves to privatise medical imaging at Wollongong Hospital and that the new sub-acute mental health unit at Shoalhaven Hospital will eventually fall into private hands.’’
Ms Kremmer said new palliative care services in NSW had also been ‘‘gifted’’ to the for-profit sector while disability services would cease to be government-run by 2018.
Federal government attempts to dismantle Medicare and its slashing of the state’s health budget were also impacting on the NSW system.
‘‘When you look at healthcare expenditure the proportion government is providing isn’t growing significantly but out-of-pocket expenses are so there’s already a real shift to the individual,’’ Ms Kremmer said.
However NSW Health Minister Jillian Skinner has condemned the ‘‘union scare campaign’’ which she said ‘‘prioritises politics ahead of patients’’.
‘‘This union campaign is absolutely baseless and any talk of Americanisation is complete nonsense,’’ Mrs Skinner said.
Television advertising supporting the union campaign, which is supported by thousands of nurses and midwives statewide, is now airing across metropolitan and regional NSW.
