The Health Minister’s attempt to con the Parliament into backing his GP Tax has been repudiated by doctors.
Minister Dutton last week told parliament “the president of the AMA has said he supports, in principle, a copayment, and so does this government.”
The facts are, health professionals and experts do not support this regressive and damaging GP Tax.
As AMA Vice President, Dr Stephen Parnis, said today:
“The Government’s co-payment would hurt the most disadvantaged in the community – the poor, the chronically ill, the elderly, and Indigenous Australians.
“To make things worse, the Government plans to take more money from the sickest and neediest Australians by cutting their Medicare rebate by $5.
“The choice is clear – the Government’s co-payment proposal must be rejected.”
The GP Tax is bad for patients, bad for healthcare and bad for the Budget.
Despite this, the Finance Minister and Treasurer Hockey have again declared their 100 per cent commitment to the GP Tax.
It’s time the Abbott Government listened to what Labor, and most health experts and professionals and even its own backbench have been telling them and abandoned this ill-thought out, damaging and regressive tax.