Australia's health-care system does a good job for most of us, and our health outcomes are generally among the best in the world. But they should be, since we have a younger population than most rich countries and a climate that encourages healthy lifestyles. And health is heavily influenced by socio-economic status, with Aborigines and other disadvantaged groups falling further behind, suggesting there is too little preventive and co-ordinated care.

The biggest obstacle to better health care is the fragmented structure of the system. The commonwealth directly funds out-of-hospital care through Medicare Benefits and pharmaceuticals, and jointly funds public hospitals with the states, which manage them. It also encourages people to take out private health insurance through lifetime cover and $2.3 billion of subsidies ... As a result no one actually takes responsibility for ensuring the entire $67 billion is being spent as well as it can be.

Like a harried emergency ward doctor, Health Minister Tony Abbott rushes around patching up the health-care system with an injection of funding here, a prescription of cash there and a constant patter of analgesic words. The latest additions to the Fairer Medicare package—extra bulk billing incentives in marginal seats and more generous private health insurance rebates for seniors—will lift its cost over three to four years to about $3.3 billion.

I am writing to you as my local member.

For the past two weeks the Health Insurance Commission has crosslinked data to Centrelink to determine whether patients are eligible for Medicare Plus copayment items. This data link appears to be defective and Medicare claims for numbers of patients are being rejected by the HIC. These are patients for whom my practice holds ostensibly accurate current Centrelink details, including documentation sighted at the time of consultation.

This is occurring in general practices all over the country.

When Medicare is contacted, they require that written details be separately submitted for each rejected claim and have withheld payment until each has been resolved. This affects the most at-risk impecunious patients who would be least able to afford to be seen were doctors to cease bulk-billing them until the problem is resolved.

An urgent policy solution is needed, namely that the claims be paid as previously and that the onus for ensuring that Centrelink documentation is both intrinsically correct and correctly linked to Medicare data be taken back to the relevant Government instrumentalities. Fraudulent claims by patients or doctors would be dealt with in the normal manner.

This is an urgent matter, as the current policy will soon spill into public notice and could easily result in the suspension of GP bulk-billing. I look forward to some quick action.