Labor prepares ground for Mediscare 2.0
February 13, 2019
The Age
Labor is gearing up for a repeat of its controversial Mediscare campaign, with opposition health spokeswoman Catherine King declaring that Australia's universal healthcare system would be under threat if the Coalition wins the coming federal election.
In her first speech to the National Press Club in Canberra on Wednesday, Ms King stood by the party's 2016 approach, which has been criticised for claiming that the government was planning to privatise Medicare.
"I make absolutely no apologies whatsoever for belling the cat on that issue," Ms King said on Wednesday.
"We will campaign on Medicare in the coming months because it is core business for us. Philosophically, it's at the centre of everything the modern Labor Party stands for."
The declaration comes amid calls for politicians to stick to the facts when debating contentious policy issues, with Opposition Leader Bill Shorten and senior Labor MPs accusing the government of running a "scare campaign" on border security over the medivac bill.
Ms King said the federal government's Medicare indexation freeze, which has seen gap fees increase as doctors battle to keep up with increasing costs, was "a GP co-payment by stealth" and that the Liberals "simply cannot be trusted on health funding".
However, she said the Australian public would have to wear the damage done by the freeze, as Labor had no plans to bow to GP demands for their rebates to be substantially increased.
"Before an election, the Liberals always insist they’ll make no cuts to health. But they lie, every time," Ms King said.
In the lead-up to the 2016 election, Mr Shorten seized upon the news that the Turnbull government intended to outsource Medicare's outdated payment delivery systems and accused the Coalition of plotting to privatise the universal healthcare system itself.
The campaign was highly effective and played into the public's view of the government as one inclined to cut funding from the health system, and was credited in part for the swing to Labor at the 2016 poll.
Labor's critics condemned the campaign as a "misleading" use of scare tactics and former Australian Medical Association president Michael Gannon last year warned against repeating it.
But the opposition health spokeswoman, who referenced Medicare 23 times in her Press Club speech, stood by the approach.
"Malcolm Turnbull himself later conceded there was 'fertile ground' for our campaign'," Ms King said.
"What he meant was, the Liberals had such an appalling record on Medicare that people simply don’t trust what they say. And they’re right not to."
She singled out Prime Minister Scott Morrison for his record as treasurer, along with former prime minister Tony Abbott and his health minister Peter Dutton - who cut the health budget despite Mr Abbott's pre-election promise not to do so.
"As the election draws near it’s worth remembering the GP co-payment," she said, referencing the Abbott government's abandoned plan to introduce a $7 charge for patients who make a bulk-billed doctor's visit.
Ms King said the Medicare indexation freeze had pushed up out-of-pocket costs to see both GPs and specialists, citing data showing that 1.3 million people were delaying or skipping medical care they needed.
"Let’s also remember that much of this carnage was inflicted by Peter Dutton – voted by clinicians as Australia’s worst Health Minister in a generation despite only occupying the role for 15 months," she said.
"And yet just six months ago nearly half the Liberal party room – including the current Health Minister – voted to make Peter Dutton the Prime Minister."
Ms King also announced plans to establish a National Health Reform Commission to oversee state and federal healthcare reform, saying an independent body was needed to lift the policy debate out of the three-year electoral cycle.
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