Finance Minister Mathias Cormann has confirmed the Abbott Government is preparing to wreck Medicare by ending universal access to health care.
Speers: Could that be through means-testing bulk-billing?
Cormann: Well, it’s about.. currently the Health Minister is conducting consultations with the AMA and other stakeholders. We will have some more to say about that in the coming months and no doubt there will be something in relation to this in the Budget
Sky PM Agenda, 29 January 2015
The Finance Minister’s revelation comes just hours after new Health Minister Sussan Ley failed to rule out means testing bulk-billing.
Journalist: So does that mean means testing bulk billing, or increasing the Medicare Levy for over a certain amount?
Ley: At this stage it doesn’t mean any or either of those things.
Melbourne, 29 January 2015
Means testing bulk billing is the end of universal health care.
Means testing bulk billing would mark the end of Medicare, leaving Australia with a two-tiered American-style health system, where bulk billing is left as a second class safety and everyone else is forced to pay for every visit to the doctor.
It confirms, yet again that Tony Abbott has never believed in Medicare. Tony Abbott believes Australians should pay a tax every time they visit the doctor.
And remember, not one cent of Tony Abbott’s cuts to health is being returned to Medicare.
Forcing the sick and vulnerable to pay every time they see a doctor is not reform.
The evidence is now in. Tony Abbott may have changed his Health Minister, but he hasn’t changed his GP Tax or his determination to end bulk billing and destroy Medicare.
It’s still a tax, it’s still a broken promise and it will only ever rise as long as Tony Abbott remains in power.
Labor believes Australians should get the health care they need, not just what they can afford.
Only Labor will protect Medicare.
Labor built Medicare we won’t let Tony Abbott destroy it.
Only Labor will protect ordinary Australian families from Tony Abbott’s attempt to wreck Medicare and push up health costs for people already under financial pressure.