DUTTON CONFIRMS MEDICARE AGENDA: END BULK BILLING AND DESTROY MEDICARE

Health Minister Peter Dutton has today confirmed his government’s real agenda on health care – he wants to end bulk billing and destroy Medicare.
 
The Abbott Government wants to make it harder for low and middle income Australians to find a bulk billing doctor when they need one.
 
Interviewed on Radio National this morning Minister Dutton declared –
 
“…about four out of five services now performed by GPs are performed for free, so about 83 per cent which is too high.”
 
Health Minister Peter Dutton – ABC Radio National – 28 August 2014
 
Families in some areas already struggle to find a bulk billing doctor when they need one.
 
This is a health minister whose only policy is to rip money out of health, and hit patients with a new tax that has the sole aim of stopping vulnerable Australians going to the doctor.
 
The Health Department’s own figures show there will be around one million fewer visits to the doctor as a result of this unfair and unaffordable tax.
 
Minister Dutton insists “bulk billing should be about those who can’t afford the $7” but at the same time insists on a compulsory GP Tax which will apply to pensioners, the poor and the chronically ill.
 
GPs are the frontline of Australia’s healthcare system and fewer visits to the doctor mean more serious illnesses, more hospitalisations and greater Budget costs.
 
Labor is the only party that believes in Medicare and the only party that will preserve bulk billing.
 
The GP Tax is bad for patients, bad for health care and it must be scrapped.