The Minister for Revenue and Assistant Treasurer, Senator Helen Coonan announced this evening a range of measures aimed at resolving the medical indemnity issue while at the same time urging doctors to continue their normal practices.
Following a meeting with insurers in Sydney today, Senator Coonan announced that commercial insurers have indicated that they are prepared to enter the medical indemnity market from 1 July 2002 to provide an alternative source of insurance for doctors, should the following conditions be met:
- cover be provided on a "claims made" basis for incidents occurring after the entry of commercial insurers into the market;
- cover be provided up to a limit, as is the case with most other forms of insurance; and
- State and Territories undertake substantive tort law reform to place future claims on a more sustainable basis.
The UMP/AMIL Board announced yesterday that they would be seeking to appoint a provisional liquidator to the group.
A constuctive meeting was held with the AMA. As a result of this meeting, Senator Coonan announced that:
- the Federal Government would immediately confirm with the provisional liquidator that the Federal Government will guarantee claims arising from any medical services provided between 29 April 2002 and 30 June 2002 by doctors currently insured by UMP/AMIL;
- the Government would legislate by 30 June 2002 to give effect to the guarantee. This of course assumes that Labor and the Democrats would support the legislation; and
- the Government would work with the provisional liquidator to determine the extent of UMP/AMIL's longer term (tail) claims, assets and liabilities and the best method of an orderly payment of claims and exploring all options to determine whether UMP/AMIL is a viable ongoing commercial business.
Senator Coonan reiterated the Government's ironclad guarantee that doctors insured with UMP/AMIL would be covered for work they carried out between yesterday and 30 June, 2002.
"Despite claims from some sectors of the community and the Opposition, to the contrary the Federal Government has guaranteed that doctor's remain covered until 30 June, 2002," Senator Coonan said.
"Today's outcomes were the results of negotiations with commercial insurers and the AMA.
"All parties have been working in the best interest of patients and doctors to ensure consistency of care, with minimal disruptions.
"This is a very difficult situation for all parties and is part of a broader problem of medical indemnity market. The situation has many similarities to the current problems in the public liability insurance market. Both issues have short and longer term solutions including the need for a shift in the attitudes of Australians over litigation and expectations for lump sum payouts."