"Medicare on the boil"

 

 Brent Howard (Letters, 19/11) is wrong to support a higher Medicare rebate for health care and pension card holders. This encourages doctors to stop bulk-billing everyone else. GPs disgruntled about their incomes are hardly going to accept having their "wealthy" patients pay less than pensioners.

 

 In a similar vein, Health Minister Tony Abbott parrots a line that Kerry Packer shouldn't expect to be bulk-billed. Mr Packer still has a large tax bill and, among other things, this pays for his health care.

 

 Shifting health funding from public to private sources, and that's exactly what is gradually happening, is a financial boon for the wealthy. It costs the rich far more to contribute a slice of their income to health care via tax than it does to buy private health insurance or simply pay all health costs up front as they arise. The Government is slowly boiling Medicare like the allegorical frog in the pot. They are still hoping that few people notice. Jump out before it's too late.

 

Published in The Australian

 21 Nov 2003

 Andrew Gunn