Catherine King

Catherine King

CATHERINE KING MP
Federal Member Ballarat
Shadow Minister Infrastructure, Transport & Regional Development

T (03) 5338 8123
Email: Catherine.King.MP@aph.gov.au

Catherine King MP
Electorate Office
5 Lydiard Street North
Ballarat, VIC 3350

Bacchus Marsh
(every Friday from 10am to 3pm)
Lerderderg Library
Geoffrey Hine Room
215 Main Street
Bacchus Marsh, VIC 3340

Open in Google Maps
  • ABOUT
  • BALLARAT
  • MEDIA
    • LOCAL MEDIA
    • NATIONAL MEDIA
  • POLICY
  • CONTACT US
Wednesday, 30 January 2019 / Published in MEDIA, NATIONAL MEDIA

HEALTHCARE COSTS AND WAITING TIMES UP AGAIN UNDER MORRISON

CATHERINE KING
SHADOW MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND MEDICARE
MEMBER FOR BALLARAT

JULIE COLLINS
SHADOW MINISTER FOR AGEING AND MENTAL HEALTH
MEMBER FOR FRANKLIN

HEALTHCARE COSTS AND WAITING TIMES UP AGAIN UNDER MORRISON

The cost of seeing a doctor continues to rise under the Liberals, prompting millions of Australians to delay care or seek it in already overstretched hospital emergency departments.

The latest Productivity Commission Report on Government Services provides yet more evidence that the Morrison Government just doesn’t care about the health of Australians.

Scott Morrison cut from health in every Budget he authored as Treasurer. These are some of the inevitable results of those cuts.

The report reveals Australians are spending on average $357 a year to see their local doctor – up from $325 when the Liberals took office in 2013.

That has led to more than 1 million Australians delaying a doctor’s visit – or putting off filling a prescriptions – because they can’t afford it.

It’s also contributing to avoidable hospital presentations, where people who should have seen a GP went to the emergency department instead.

The report also confirms that nearly 30 per cent of Australians who did go to the ED were not seen within clinically-recommended times. Australia’s elective surgery waiting list is also blowing out, with 866,363 people added to the national waiting list but only 748,091 coming off it in 2017-18.

The report also exposes the Morrison Government’s lie that it’s putting more money into public hospitals. Per capita spending has in fact not increased at all.

And for all the talk of record investment in mental health by this government, the Productivity Commission report shows that real expenditure on mental health by the Commonwealth has fallen in the last year.

This Government continues to develop mental health policy with a piecemeal approach, while Australians living with mental ill health need real reform.

Only Labor has a plan to restore the hospital funding cut by the Liberals with our $2.8 billion Better Hospitals Fund.

Only Labor has a plan to rein in costs by scrapping the Liberals’ Medicare rebate freeze and capping private health insurance increases.

Only Labor can be trusted on health.

WEDNESDAY, 30 JANUARY 2019

Tagged under: 2019

What you can read next

LABOR LAUNCHES LOCAL GRIFFITH CAMPAIGN TO SAVE MEDICARE
Time to listen to communities on Inland Rail
MARS A WINNER FROM CLEAN ENERGY PROGRAM

FILTER BY TYPE:

  • MEDIA
    • LOCAL MEDIA
    • NATIONAL MEDIA

FILTER BY YEAR:

2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020

© Catherine King. Authorised by Catherine King, Australian Labor Party, Canberra

Noise Birds

TOP