Speaking at Parliament House on Specialist Gap Fees & Healthcare Affordability
On Thursday 5 February 2026, I spoke at Parliament House in Canberra on a panel examining rising specialist gap fees and healthcare affordability in Australia.
The forum brought together parliamentarians, policy leaders, clinicians and consumer voices to explore practical reforms that can protect access to specialist care. I spoke alongside Kos Samaras, Professor Brendan Murphy, Dr Adam Triggs and Kimberley Grima, with keynote remarks from Dr Mike Freelander, Chair of the Standing Committee on Health, Aged Care and Disability.
This was not a theoretical discussion. It was about what rising costs are doing to real people.
The Data We Can’t Ignore
New analysis presented by Private Healthcare Australia and Mandala Partners shows a clear and troubling pattern:
Medical and hospital services recorded inflation of 5.1% in October 2025, well above CPI.
In 2024, around 900,000 Australians delayed or avoided seeing a specialist because of cost.
Almost half of consumers surveyed were unaware of appointment costs upfront.
One-third received bills they did not expect.
In rural areas, 61% of people report difficulty securing timely specialist appointments.
At the same time, GP visits are rising while follow-through to specialist care is falling.
Access is not just about supply. It is about affordability, predictability and trust.
Why Patient Voices Matter in Policy Rooms
Speaking at Parliament House was not about telling my story for its own sake. It was about grounding reform discussions in lived experience.
When nearly a million Australians delay specialist care in a single year because of cost, this is not a marginal issue. It is a system signal. Patients are are asking for clarity, fairness and the ability to plan. That starts with transparency.
As I said in the room, the data must reflect the true costs patients are facing. My $15,000 gap for one surgery in one year sits a long way from the reported national average out-of-pocket cost of around $270 for in-hospital care.
If we want a health system that protects access, we must ensure cost does not quietly become a barrier to treatment and care. And we need to talk it about it openly and with access to the true data.
You can download the full report ‘Restoring affordable access to specialist care in Australia’ here
Photograph by Paul Chapman from Mode Imagery
Photograph by Paul Chapman from Mode Imagery
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