BY NICK EVERETT

SYDNEY — A rally to save Medicare was held outside NSW Parliament House on July 22, where a Senate committee was commencing its hearings on the federal government's changes to Medicare. Around 150 people attended.

Organised by the Save Medicare Alliance, the rally was addressed by the Senate committee's chairperson, ALP senator Jan McLucas, as well as other federal and state parliamentarians, including NSW Democrats MLC Arthur Chesterfield-Evans and Progressive Alliance senator Meg Lees. Representatives from the Doctors Reform Society, the NSW Labor Council and the National Union of Students also spoke.

The Save Medicare Alliance was initiated at a public meeting organised by the Combined Pensioners and Superannuates Association following the federal government's March budget, which proposed to limit bulk-billing to the poor and to enable those able to pay to more quickly obtain medical treatment.

As leader of the federal opposition, John Howard opposed the introduction of Medicare in 1984; in 1987 he told radio 2UE that the Coalition would “make changes to Medicare which amount to its de facto dismantling” and would “get rid of the bulk-billing system”. Speakers at the rally noted that it was the community's strong support for a universal health-care system that has prevented Howard's government moving to dismantle Medicare sooner.

Chesterfield-Evans criticised Labor for not opposing the $2.5 billion given to private health insurance companies each year by the Howard government. He described the subsidy as a “rort of public monies”, which should be put into the public health system.

From Green Left Weekly, July 30, 2003.
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