Shorten: Medicare rebate move leaves us ‘$3.2bn light’   


    The Australian
    May 26, 2017


Bill Shorten says the Coalition has withheld $3.2 billion from the health system by unwinding the Medicare rebate freeze in stages rather than abolishing it from July. 

Mr Shorten used figures from the Parliamentary Budget Office to tell the Australian Medical Association today the government was insincere in its support of Medicare.

In a speech to the peak health body’s national conference in Melbourne, the Labor leader flagged that health would remain a major political battleground.

The Turnbull government announced in this month’s budget that it would unwind freezes to the Medicare rebate over four years as it sought to neutralise health policy as a potent political issue.

However Mr Shorten said today: “They are $3.2 billion light.

   

“If they had taken away the freezes on budget night compared to (staging it over) four years, there would be an extra $3.2 billion in patient rebate.”

He said $9 million of health funding would be restored this year, a shortfall of $735 million.

“So when the government says to you that they have heard the message, you have to ask yourself: ‘How can you hear a message when you are happy to find money for corporate tax cuts, when you are happy for other propositions but you can’t find the money for patient rebates?’ It’s all a question of priorities,” Mr Shorten said.   

“They figure that the health care in this country would be happy with $9 million extra this year in the health care system.

“They are probably hoping and counting that $9 million will be enough to make people happy. If you like, it’s the minimum they can get away with paying to keep people silent.

“$9 million is their attempt to keep the system silent.”

Mr Shorten praised the AMA for its attacks on the government’s health policies in its last term and during the election.

“For three years the AMA has been at the forefront of opposing some of the attacks on Medicare,” he said.

“Your authenticity, your conviction, your influence was felt in every corner of the country.

“As much as my political opponents said that the stories of our concerns about Medicare and the health system were concocted ... the fact of the matter is that after he election the government seems to be at least aware of the importance of the issues of health care.”

He said health policy was the biggest reason the government almost lost the 2016 election.

“So the AMA — it wasn’t taking a side, it was taking the side of patients — you had a tremendous significance and healthcare had a centre stage role in the last election,” he said.

Mr Shorten also commended the AMA for openly supporting gay marriage.

“You addressed the consequences of discrimination on mental health. You made clear that gay parents in every way are equally capable of raising happy, resilient and confident kids.”

   

In celebration of Shorty's MEDICARE FRAUD.

Wonder what silly childish scare campaigns policyless Shorty is cooking up this time ?

But Labor can be trusted to create enormous debt and general chaos.

Now the Libs are creating the most enormous debt ever, damn near $1Trn in gross debt by 2019. If the NBN has not been brought on-Budget by then it should have so add that $60Bn to gross debt (and to net debt too, copper internet is not worth a penny and by 2019 that will be well known.)

As well as that, with the carmakers gone unemployment will take another jump.