Page 1835 - Week 06 - Thursday, 5 June 2014
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(f) that it is important to ensure that we continue to maintain a fair healthcare funding system, to ensure equitable access to quality healthcare; and
(g) over 50% of GP visits in Canberra are bulk billed, and bulk billing patients will now be expected to provide a total of around an extra $5 million annually through individual co-payments; and
(2) calls on the Speaker to write to the Prime Minister and the Minister for Health on behalf of the ACT Legislative Assembly requesting them to withdraw their proposal to introduce Medicare co-payments.
The motion is about the impacts of the federal government’s recent budget on our healthcare system. In particular, I am concerned about the impact on families, on the sick, on the vulnerable, on pensioners and low-income families, amongst others, of the Medicare co-payment proposal. Universal health care in Australia has been a mainstay since the Whitlam era. The original purpose of the new universal health insurance scheme, called Medibank at that time, was to provide the most equitable and efficient means of providing health insurance coverage for all Australians.
Medicare, as we know it today, has been in place since 1984. Millions of Australians rely on it every month for subsidised treatment from medical providers such as medical practitioners, nurse practitioners and allied health professionals, as well as for free treatment in public hospitals. Before the advent of Medicare we had a two-tiered system of health care in Australia, as you can imagine, where only those who could afford it were able to gain professional support for their health care. This is not an Australia that the Greens want to go back to, and I hope that all members in this place would agree with me.
In delivering the Abbott government’s first federal budget, Mr Hockey said that we are a nation of lifters, not leaners. Sadly, though, this budget leans on the poor to lift the rich. The load has not been evenly spread, with a thin tissue of alleged burden on high-income earners and big business while students, the unemployed, those on welfare, the sick, the ageing and the vulnerable take the big hits.
The attack on the heart of Medicare—a cornerstone of our modern and caring society—by removing free universal access to quality health care is a disaster for those on low incomes and a disaster for the health of our nation. The government’s assault on Medicare, one of the great Australian success stories, shows that the government really does not understand the fundamental problems in Australia’s health system and is implementing an agenda that simply makes life harder for ordinary people.
Madam Deputy Speaker, the Greens have a different agenda. Our election promises go in exactly the opposite direction in relation to Medicare. We wanted additional funds for Medicare, as we believe that healthy people make a healthy society. We have also long fought for funding for denticare, as we believe that having healthy teeth is an integral part of being healthy. There is no good reason for dentistry not to be covered by the Medicare system, given that looking after your teeth for your long-term health is vital. This is on top of the additional burden which will be felt by public dental patients as the government reduces funding to states and territories.
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