Fri 20th Feb 2015
Obsessed with price signals
Published in The Age on Friday, February 20, 2015
The GP co-payment of $20 has been abandoned. The Health Minister says however, that she would be “persistent and persevering” in achieving the government’s plan to set a price signal for GP visits. Price signals are the Abbott Government’s obsession. They are designed to stop lower income Australians from seeing GPs whilst leaving the rich unaffected by what to them is a small co-payment.
But it gets worse. The Government is currently encouraging private health insurance companies to cover co-payments for their members. The Government is saying that if one can afford private insurance, price signals aren’t necessary.
This policy sows the government believes either that it is only the poorer half of the population who use doctors too much or that it simply does not want such people to have adequate health care. It is saying that the rich don’t need price signals and the poor don’t count.
Tim Woodruff
Vice president