Health minister Sussan Ley’s announcement that the GP co-payment has been dropped was welcomed by Save Medicare Sydney (SMS). But the group warns: “Medicare is not safe while the rebate remains frozen and the government looks for other ways to dismantle universal health care.”
Jean Parker from SMS said: “Prime Minister [Tony] Abbott and Ley want Medicare bulk-billing to become a safety-net for the ‘vulnerable’.
“The government wants to break the universal nature of Medicare that keeps the system fair. Medicare bulk-billing is for all patients, not just the very poor. Community support for keeping Medicare universal is now irrefutable. When will this government get the message?”
Coral Wynter, Socialist Alliance candidate in the upcoming NSW Legislative Council elections, said on March 5: "The ongoing freeze on Medicare rebates for GPs and specialist consultations will create pressure on doctors to charge full up-front fees to patients, thus threatening the end of bulk-billing under Medicare.”
Wynter said that in NSW, Premier Mike Baird was pushing through cost-cutting measures that threaten public hospitals and services.
She said: "The Socialist Alliance is strongly opposed to the privatisation of the Northern Beaches Hospital, as well as other state health facilities such as disability services in the Hunter and elsewhere.
"We fully support the campaign by the NSW Nurses and Midwives Association and others to stop this plan going through.
"In 2015, we need to explain to the people that Medicare is still under attack, and that the struggle to defend it is more urgent than ever.”
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