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Dr Tim Woodruff The Australian 7 March 2003 John Howard’s `rescue plan’ for bulk billing (Australian 5/2) is a ‘destruction plan’ for Medicare. It highlights the hypocrisy and deceit he has demonstrated since claiming before the last election that `Medicare stays’. Instead Medicare, a public health insurance scheme aiming to deliver high quality health care to all Australians, irrespective of income, will now be a so called `safety net’ for the disadvantaged. The two pronged rescue plan aims firstly to increase the number of GPs, but it must be remembered that it is the Howard Government which has restricted the number of training places and provider numbers for GPs. Its second prong of ensuring improved access just for the desperate is the centrepiece of the Howard aim of destroying Medicare as a universal health care system. Universal is about it being for all, the same level of service, irrespective of income. A so called `safety net’ is not about the same level of service. It is about second rate care. Those who do
not qualify for the safety net need to be alert and
alarmed. They will pay more: more to visit the GP, more to get their
prescriptions, more for their private health insurance. No one will be
better off except the private health industry, the pharmaceutical
industry, and, of course, those doctors who choose to charge as much as
desperate patients can afford to pay.
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