In the lead-up to the 2004 election, Health Minister Tony Abbott promised there would be no changes to the Medicare safety net.
TICKY FULLERTON: Will this Government commit to keeping the Medicare-plus-safety-net as it is now in place after the election?
TONY ABBOTT: Yes.
TICKY FULLERTON: That’s a cast-iron commitment?
TONY ABBOTT: Cast-iron commitment. Absolutely.
TICKY FULLERTON: 80 per cent of out-of-pocket expenses rebatable over $300, over $700?
TONY ABBOTT: That is an absolutely rock solid, iron-clad commitment.
It only took a few months for this promise to be broken.
In April 2005 John Howard announced “There’ll be an increase in the threshold probably to the levels of $500 instead of $300 and $1,000 instead of $700.”
Defending himself against accusations of duplicity by the Labor Opposition, Howard apologised to Australians and acknowledged that his broken election promise on the Medicare safety net would be unpopular with voters but necessary to put Medicare on a sustainable basis.
Before the 2013 election, Tony Abbott promised that there would be no cuts to hospitals yet in his first budget, $50 billion was cut from future hospital funding.
In the leaders debate with Kevin Rudd he also stated categorically that “We are not shutting any Medicare locals.”
When questioned about his previous opposition to Medicare locals he replied “Some time ago we were going to abolish the program, we then decided on better consideration that we were going to review the program.”
Then in June 2015 we were informed that “The Abbott government will spend up to $112 million to close the 61 Medicare Locals established by the former Labor government.”
In August 2014, then Health Minister Peter Dutton issued a statement:
The Australian Government allocated funding in the 2014-15 Budget to go to the commercial market calling for Expressions of Interest from the private sector to provide claims and payment services for Medicare (MBS) and the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS).
In February this year, Health Minister Sussan Ley confirmed that the government was examining Medicare’s payment technology, with Fairfax reporting that the plan was well advanced and that international companies including US firm Sutherland Global Services (Healthcare Solutions) had met with health groups on the prospect of taking over Medicare payment systems.
A new taskforce run by bureaucrat John Cahill is believed to have proposed a “proof of concept” trial for next year.
Turnbull made no attempt to play down the plans.
“What we are looking at, as we look at in every area, is improving the delivery of government services … looking at ways to take the health and aged care payment system into the 21st century. This is about making it simpler and faster for patients to be able to transact with Medicare, to get the services they are entitled to.”
As Labor seeks to once again warn people about the Coalition’s track record in breaking promises about health, Turnbull has backflipped, labelling the campaign as “disgraceful.”
“Every element of Medicare, every aspect of Medicare that is delivered by Government today will continue to be delivered by Government in the future, full stop,” he now assures us. “Medicare will never, ever, ever be privatised.”
But as Bob Hawke pointed out, “You don’t set up a Medicare privatisation taskforce unless you aim to privatise Medicare.”
Considering this government’s constant refrain has been that Medicare is unsustainable, their consistent push towards privatisation, their fixation on cutting government spending, and their history of broken election promises, I don’t trust Turnbull’s assurances one iota. He is not in a position to make them as we have seen with his inability to control the factions in his party.
Beware Australia.
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.
