The Liberals have proven they still don’t get the impact of their six-year freeze on Australians’ access to affordable health care.
In Parliament today, Member for Bowman Andrew Laming downplayed the Government’s Medicare freeze and dismissed the impact on patients:
And then we have the temerity of this other side of politics – Gallery – to come in here and argue over a 60 cent indexation for Medicare. [LAMING, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 28 MARCH 2017]
The Government’s six-year freeze on Medicare is not – as the Member contends – a matter of 60 cents. It is an ice age which is already driving down bulk billing and forcing Australians to pay more every time they see the GP.
If the Government won’t listen to Labor and drop the freeze, they should listen to every single health stakeholder sending a clear message to the Government that their health policy is pushing general practice to the brink, including:
- The Australian Medical Association
- The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners
- The Australian Nurses and Midwives Federation
- The Consumers Health Forum
- The Australian Healthcare and Hospitals Association
- The Rural Doctors’ Association
GPs and patients have been bearing the brunt of their unfair health choices for years and the Turnbull Government hasn’t batted an eyelid. Australians have been suffering for too long with the costs of health and the Government has only made it worse.
The least they could do is to stop the rot and drop their unfair freeze once and for all.
TUESDAY, 28 MARCH 2017