HEALTH DEPARTMENT ADMITS GP TAX NOT BACKED BY EVIDENCE

The Department of Health has admitted the Abbott Government’s GP Tax is not backed by any substantive research.
 
The damning admission came from senior Department officials at the Senate Select Committee on Health in Canberra
 
“I’m unaware of any substantive work in Australia specifically about the impact of something like [the] Medicare co-payment and reduction in rebate,” the department’s acting deputy secretary told the inquiry.
 
The admission confirmed evidence earlier from the Australian Medical Association and Royal Australian College of General Practitioners that they had not been consulted about either version of the GP Tax, and only found out about the second version 20 minutes before it was announced.
 
Those same witnesses earlier confirmed that had any proper research been done on the GP Tax, it should never have been introduced.
 
That research would expose the complete dishonesty of the government’s arguments for the GP Tax with growth in health spending at its lowest level since the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare began compiling records 30 years ago.
 
It would also show Australia’s spending on health care is lower than many developed nations, yet, at the same time Australians are spending more in out of pocket costs than the OECD average with much worse to come under the Abbott Government’s GP Tax and PBS price hikes.
 
The admissions by the Department confirms the GP Tax is nothing more than an ideologically-based attack on Medicare from a party determined to destroy Australia’s much-loved universal health care system.
 
It confirms only Labor believes Australians should get the health care they need, not just what they can afford.
 
The Liberals might change their leader, but they won’t change their determination to destroy Medicare.
 
Only Labor will protect ordinary Australian families from the Liberals’ attempt to wreck Medicare and push up health costs for people already under financial pressure.