John Howard’s Plan To Destroy Medicare: Victorian Families To Suffer Simon Crean - Leader of the Opposition

Media Statement - 24 April 2003

John Howard has let down Australians and the hospitals that serve them by not committing to restoring Medicare bulk billing in his statement on the Australian Health Care Agreement yesterday.

By killing bulk billing for Australian families, John Howard is only increasing the pressure on our public hospital emergency wards.

John Howard's is the highest taxing Government in Australian history. There is no excuse for killing Medicare.

John Howard has only one answer to the needs of our health system – you pay more.

Bulk billing rates are falling, patient contributions are rising, private health insurance premium costs are up, and he still wants families to pay 30 percent more for essential medicines.

Nation-wide, bulk billing rates have dropped from 80.6% to 69.6%since the Howard Government was elected.

In Victoria, the average bulk billing rate has fallen by 12% in just two years to 65.4%.

Nation-wide, it now costs on average $12.80 to see a doctor who does not bulk bill.

In Victoria, it's worse at $13.

To make matters worse, John Howard allowed the private health insurance funds to again put up premiums from 1 April this month. That's a further $150-$250 more a year out of the pockets of Australian families.

John Howard is making your credit card more important than your Medicare card.

No wonder many Australian families turn to the Emergency Department of their local hospital. Here in Victoria, presentations at Emergency Departments have risen 10 percent in 2 years with a growth in the number of patients who could be treated by a GP.

John Howard has never believed in Medicare: throughout the eighties and early nineties he campaigned on a policy to destroy Medicare and get rid of bulk billing.

Now, with the proposals that have been leaked over the past few weeks, we see his real hand showing. If these proposals succeed, Medicare as we know it will be destroyed.

John Howard's proposals mean the end of bulk billing. John Howard has us headed to an American-style, two-tiered system in which access to a doctor is based on wealth, not health.

Australian families should not have to wonder if they can afford to take their sick children to the doctor.

The Howard Government is waging war on Medicare, and is attempting to destroy bulk billing.

Only Labor will save Medicare.

It's essential to protect Medicare and the universal health care system that all Australians pay for through the Medicare levy and our taxes.