What is in the Australian Governments new medical indemnity package?
The Australian Government has acted to support medical practitioners and their medical defence organisations through a package that will help ensure the continuation of Australia’s medical indemnity insurance market, following rises to premiums. The Australian Government’s initial medical indemnity insurance framework package was announced by the Prime Minister on 23 October 2002. Subsequent enhancements to the package were announced on 19 March 2003, 23 May 2003, 6 June 2003, 10 October 2003, 17 December 2003, 13 May 2004, and 18 June 2004. The measures contained in the package are designed to make the medical indemnity market more sustainable, to give doctors the certainty they need to continue practicing and to make medical indemnity cover more affordable for doctors. The package now includes: • the Premium Support Scheme (PSS), to help doctors whose medical indemnity costs exceed 7.5% of their gross private medical income. The PSS is a broader based scheme that has now replaced the
