Tony Abbott and the Minister for Health have shown their utter arrogance and contempt for the processes of the Parliament once again. Despite not even being introduced into the Senate, let alone passed by the House of Representatives, the Government is advertising that its $1.3 billion medicines tax and unfair changes to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme Safety Net will be in place from 1 July 2015.
These changes are listed for debate in the House of Representatives today.
Tony Abbott wants to increase the cost of prescriptions for general patients to $42.70 and to $6.90 for concessional patients – a more than 15 per cent increase.
In addition to this Tony Abbott wants to increase the PBS Safety Net, not only making medicines more expensive but putting the safety net further out of reach. By 2018 pensioners and other Australians with a healthcare card will need to fill 68 prescriptions before they qualify for the PBS Safety Net, a more than 13 per cent increase over what it is today.
“This shows the utter contempt Tony Abbott and the Coalition have for the new Senate. Not content with slugging a $7 tax on Australians every time they visit the doctor, Tony Abbott is now slugging people more for their medicines,” Catherine King, Shadow Minister for Health said.
“Not only are Australian families, pensioners and patients paying more to visit the doctor every time they are sick, they are also paying more every time they need to fill a prescription.”
This is all a part of the Abbott Government’s plans to undermine Medicare and make people pay more for their health care.
The increase in cost of prescriptions will hurt every Australian.
This is just another broken promise from a government who wants to see the end of universal health care as we know it.
Labor will not support changes that price Australians out of the health system. We won’t support Tony Abbott’s unfair slug on sick Australians.
We will stand up to Tony Abbott’s attack on Medicare.