A damning Senate report has provided the final evidence Tony Abbott’s GP Tax is a disaster and should be scrapped.
In every state over the last five months the Senate Select Committee on Health received more than 100 submissions and heard from countless witnesses who expressed consistent and overwhelming opposition to the proposed $7 co-payments.
“During the committee’s inquiry one issue raised repeated concerns: the $7 co-payment. The overwhelming sentiment of witnesses was that the $7 co-payment was that it will have a negative impact on the health and wellbeing of all Australians and is practically unworkable.”
Senate Select Committee on Health Interim Report Page xiii
Given the overwhelming evidence against the GP Tax, the committee’s interim report has recommended that the government immediately abandon the $7 GP Tax.
The committee also heard widespread concerns about the Abbott Government’s cut of more than $50 billion in hospital funding.
The hospital funding cuts were also seen as detrimental to the hospital workforce and damaging to health outcomes of patients with acute conditions.
Senate Select Committee on Health Interim Report Page xv
The committee also heard consistent concerns about the decision to abolish all 61 Medicare Locals and replace them with 30 new mega-bureaucracies in clear breach of Tony Abbott’s election promise that "we are not shutting any Medicare Locals".
The committee is concerned that the government’s decision to close 61 Medicare Locals and establish a new system of 30 PHNs is causing loss of services particularly in rural and remote areas and loss of allied health workforces.
Senate Select Committee on Health Interim Report Page xvii
On every level, the committee has found Tony Abbott’s budget is a disaster for health.
The evidence is now in and it’s long past time for the Abbott Government to listen to what Labor and most experts and health professionals have been telling it since day one and scrap its disastrous GP Tax.