Dear All,
Last week Andrew Wilkie MP introduced a Private Member’s Bill in the House of Representatives.
Following on from the success of having a bill addressing independent dentists concerns presented in parliament, the IDN now needs your help to keep up the pressure.
We recommend that you email your local house of representatives’ members, and state senators, and ask them to raise the matters outlined in Andrew Wilke’s bill as concerns in their respective party rooms.
As we know that most dentists are time poor, we have prepared the below draft for you to forward to your local house of representatives’ members and state senators. At the bottom of the page is a PDF link with their contact details.
All you have to do is copy the below draft letter into an email, use the PDF to look up details, address it to your local member and click send.
Draft Email:
Dear ………….
As you are my local representative I am contacting you to ask you to support an issue that is adversely affecting a large number of your voting base and our dentistry business.
This concerns the Bupa Health Fund policy of paying up to 40% lower claims value to policy holders who exercise freedom of choice of the health professional they select to treat them.
As a result, Bupa members who hold identical policies and pay identical premiums as other Bupa members are not entitled to receive a 100% claim benefit if they don’t follow the Bupa directive of attending Bupa owned or contracted health provider.
This injustice was identified in the recent Senate Committee report into the Health Insurance Industry. The report recommended that the practice be changed to allow freedom of choice.
Senate Recommendation extract:
LIST OF RECOMMENDATIONS
Recommendation 12
5.47 The committee recommends that the Commonwealth Government amend relevant legislation to prohibit the current practice of differential rebates for the same treatments provided under the same product in the same jurisdiction.
Same policy – same cost – same treatment but up to 40% lower claim paid simply because patient chose their own dentist.
The bill that Andrew presented highlighted the above injustice and suggested to have the practice changed in the current Health Act – a simple action that will benefit many patients and health practitioners.
We ask that you raise this issue in your party room and press for supporting action to effect the required change in any negotiations your party may have with the Liberal party.
You can help correct a clear discrimination that exists solely to increase Bupa’s profit and operating efficiency – at the financial cost of people who are struggling to contribute to cover the cost of their health care.
I look forward to your early response.
Name ………….
[Insert Your Contact Details]
This process should take you no longer than a couple of minutes and will help our effort tremendously.