O'Connor Simon: SuperGold Health Check Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeO'Connor Simon: SuperGold Health Check Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 24 June 2015. Volume:706;Page:4752. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]SIMON O’CONNOR (National—Tāmaki): It could have been. You never know. It was a great phrase: “Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes”—I am not quite sure what the declension is in terms of the New Zealand First Party—beware Greeks bearing gifts. We have just heard from the other side that this is a no-brainer it will save money and it is easy. Well the National Party’s position is quite clear as is my own. We will not be supporting this bill and there are a number of good reasons not to do so. But as we start the debate around this bill there is always that usual suggestion of “Look let’s just take it through the first reading and let’s just put it to the select committee and have a discussion.”I am certainly one of the people who do not necessarily believe in just sending things to select committees for the sake of it. I think we can exercise some judgment prudently and early on in order to engage with this particular first reading of the SuperGold Health Check Bill. Any attempt to try to improve the health of Kiwis is worth engaging in is worth discussing but just because—[Interruption] They are yelling that we have to send it to a select committee. They forget that we have discussions before we come to anything like this and that we actually have a debate at the first reading to decide whether a bill is worthy of going forward. As I said at the start there is not really much need for this to go forward.The primary reason we do not support this bill—and those who understand health will understand this—is that ultimately this issue is about targeting and putting money and support into the most necessary places. Those of us engaged in health care—be it as the chair of the Health Committee or in my work previously—know that there is not unlimited cash for every desire and that we have to have priorities. We have also got to have some prudence around some of the arguments.One argument that the right honourable gentleman put forward is that people are getting older and therefore as ages increase we have to make sure that people do not go to GPs and to hospital. It does not really make a lot of sense because actually as people are ageing it does not really matter when they engage with the GP they will still ultimately for a lot of people end up in hospital or in residential care and the like. So it is not ultimately a saving further down the track. What we see as the main provisions of this bill—[Interruption] I have to say one thing I notice—the Opposition members are in excellent voice and will not need to go and see an ear nose and throat doctor. I am sure that through your vocal cord exercises here you are doing very very well.This particular bill the SuperGold Health Check Bill argues for three free GP visits. What we know already is that generally speaking those over 65 are not struggling to go to the GP certainly not in the same way that our younger people are. What we know already is that 95 percent of those over 65 are able to get to a GP at least once a year. [Interruption] Of course Opposition members are not terribly happy to hear that statistic so we should repeat it again. We would not want them to be hard of hearing. Of course if the Opposition members are hard of hearing I am pleased to tell them that the SuperGold card enhanced by the National Government enables them to go to the likes of an audiologist. If they also need some ophthalmological help I think that they can with the enhanced SuperGold card from the National Government get some ophthalmological help as well. I am not sure they do brain transplants—that is probably a bit too involved.The statistics are very clear that 95 percent of those over 65 years of age are able to access and are accessing a GP. In fact 80 percent—80 percent—of those over 65 years of age access a GP three times a year. So really you have got to ask what the problem is here. I know that in my own electorate this is not an issue. My electorate is relatively diverse. You go from the heights of Ōrākei down to the likes of Glen Innes. Not being a constituent MP the honourable member would not understand this—sorry; he has just become one. That is right! He has just become one so I am sure the member is going to tell me that he has all these people knocking his door down. Well actually I know from my own electorate that this is not an issue. Be it from Glen Innes or from Ōrākei they not demanding this. In fact what they are asking for is more focus on young people. Of course they might talk about Northland seeing that my family is from up that way—but in Northland they do not talk about this. In fact they are asking where the local MP is. Look the Government already has a wide range of support—Hon Member: They’re still looking for him.SIMON O’CONNOR: Still looking for him—that is right. What they are looking for is obviously support for the elderly and I think it is important to tell the House that there is already something called the Very Low Cost Access Scheme. That is around co-payments that people make and I know colleagues of mine will speak to that. We already have the high use health card and the community services card. Again those who are most in need regardless of age have access to this. Then there is the pharmacy subsidy card which is quite well used in my electorate which means that if you have over 20 prescription items in a year—that is about $100—your prescriptions become free after that.So the two primary messages I am trying to put across here are that first and foremost our elderly those over 65 are already accessing primary care and for those who are struggling there is a multiple array of support services already in place. I think it is also very helpful to note that the Government continues to be committed to the area of health. During the Budget speeches you would have heard about the extra elective surgeries that we are having a 47 percent increase there. We have recently announced a $47 million increase for dementia care. I know this is only a small part of health care for the aged but we understand the importance of that.We are also working on other technologies to make say getting your pharmaceutical scripts easier through the e-Prescription System. It is something really simple. When our aged or anyone goes to their GP the prescription goes straight to the pharmacist. Patients do not have to take a piece of paper. It is automatically being checked. It is better for the pharmacist better for the doctor and most important better for the patient. So ultimately this bill does not need to be implemented. The services are already being provided to the over-65s.I would suggest that this bill is a classic case of bribing people with their own money. I notice that the honourable member the Rt Hon Winston Peters talked about the high taxes in times past. If I recall correctly that member was in those Governments that had those very high taxes. In fact I think that the member may have been in a Government with my predecessor Muldoon when the Government was having the high taxes and so forth. The services are already there for those retiring. They are receiving good support be it though superannuation through governmental supports already for health care and importantly through the SuperGold card.One of the things that the right honourable member will be absolutely thrilled about is that often when I go into the retirement villages and residential care services in my electorate people will mention the SuperGold card and they are very very pleased that the Rt Hon Winston Peters introduced it which is great—it is always a positive way to start the conversation. What is excellent is that by the time I finish chatting with them they are thanking the National Government for turning the SuperGold card into something absolutely fantastic. So I think it is important to acknowledge the honourable member for starting the journey—the first step on the ladder. National proudly has taken it a lot lot further and we pay substantial moneys now—and rightly so—into the SuperGold card which is helping across a wide array of areas.So fundamentally this desire to extend it for this particular reason is really just political posturing if you will. As we said at the start this is not something that is well needed. The member himself costed this at about $69 million. I was going to say it was something between $64 million and $100 million a year. Is that really the costings that we need? Again I do not think we do. We have to be prudent with the health spend. It is the largest ever—just shy of $16 billion now under this Government—but every dollar counts. In fact we heard that very clearly today from the Minister when we were discussing the estimates—we need to be prudent with every dollar. So targeting up to $100 million towards those over 65 to go to their GPs when they are already going to their GPs or are in residential care or villages and are accessing primary health care is not a prudent spend particularly when you contrast it with what every medical professional—GP or specialist—will tell you which is that we need to target our young people.The Health Committee before me did a fantastic piece of work on the period of time from pre-conception to 3 years old—that is where the most efficacious use of our health care spending is and where we need to focus. It is one of the reasons why we as a Government were happy to have free health care for under-sixes and why most recently we are moving towards having free health care for those under 13. That is where the efficacious spend is and not in better health outcomes because importantly they are the ones not engaging with primary health care in the way that they should.So I want to conclude by reiterating the National Party’s desire not to vote for this bill. We acknowledge the great intention of the member in bringing this here—for political reasons or otherwise. Sometimes a SuperGold card can help you get cheaper tyres hearing checks and so forth but a SuperGold card cannot prevent someone from coming up with ideas that are a bit shoddy.