Medicare Safety Net to be torn up by tories

Medicare Safety Net to be torn up by tories

"THOUSANDS of Australians face huge rises in their health bills as the Howard Government plans to pare back the Medicare safety net." - The Herald Sun 11-4-2005

You all remember this Election promise from "honest" John, aka The Lying Rodent, don't you? B^p

No? Like the rest of the country all you remember was their single, hysterical campaign on Interest rates? Well, weren't you silly.. now that it's been attacked by the RBA as creating false impressions the tories claim they weren't even responsible for that campaign! B^D

As usual, SomeOne Else did it, the party ads were placed by 'an individual' B^p ...this time a party flunkie will take the rap!

Well the tory lies never end, now an explicit promise is being torn up as the savage, real tory agenda, unfolds;

"Families, pensioners and other concession cardholders could be forced to pay at least $200 more to qualify for safety net protection under the changes considered."

How else could the tories prop up the phenomenally expensive, atrociously inefficient, fully rorted Private Health Scams?

Make the alternative more expensive, even for people with NO CHOICE.. the battlers!

"Senior Government ministers -- including Treasurer Peter Costello and Health Minister Tony Abbott -- repeatedly promised in the lead-up to last year's election the safety net would not be modified.

But health authorities have confirmed Mr Abbott is looking at ways of cutting costs after big blowouts in the scheme, first revealed by the Herald Sun in July 2004."

So, everytime they were asked about a real issue, they simply lied, and then ran with the Big Lie, interest rates hysteria.

Now the cost of believing the tory liars is revealed, people whose jobs are insecure, whose kids can't get places at uni to gain skills the country is short of, whose petrol is heading towards $2-00 a litre (thanks warmongers, so much for Cheap captured oil! B^p ) adding to every living cost, had better not get sick, as the tories continue to destroy Medicare so the we can be just like the Americans, with the worst health care in the Western world;

"Safety net patients are reimbursed 80 per cent of their out-of-pocket Medicare costs by the Commonwealth."

For pensioners and most families, this protection kicks in once their out-of-pockets costs hit $300 in a year, and $700 for others.

These thresholds would be lifted to $500 and $1000 under one option being considered by the Howard Government.

Thousands of families and pensioners currently covered by the net would fail to qualify for the discounts if the thresholds were raised.

Another possibility would be to reduce the 80 per cent reimbursements, forcing patients to pay a greater share of their own bills.

Labor's health spokeswoman, Julia Gillard, said the safety net was flawed policy from the start. "If the threshold is increased, people will miss out and the minister will have to explain why," Ms Gillard said.

"It was obvious from the start that Minister Abbott's sham safety net was unsustainable, inequitable and inherently flawed.

"It seems there will be another broken election promise."

Yup, they lie to the poorest and most vulnerable and pander to teh wealthy elites, including the foreign ones.

"The Herald Sun asked Mr Costello last year to guarantee the thresholds and the 80 per cent reimbursements would not change.

"The parameters of the safety net will not change," he said.

Mr Abbott has described the safety net as the most important structural improvement to Medicare in its history."

In fact it was another slash in the rest of a Thousand Cuts, deliberately weakening it to ensure it's dissolution, the steady dismantling of Medicare while the liars promised to protect it.

But the safety net was plagued by problems in its first year, including rorting of the new system by obstetricians and IVF clinicians that helped the bottom line blow out.

And Health Department data released in the lead-up to the election showed people living in wealthy electorates were much more likely to benefit from the discounts."

When has it ever been any different with the tories, they are the record highest taxing government in our history, yet they provide less services every year.. they tax my pensioner aunt when she buys toilet paper, and give Mrs Sara Murdoch O'Hare a $3000 baby bonus and a Health fund rebate ...

It takes a lot of widows and workers pennies to fork out thousands in tory welfare for the elites.. you peons better get back to work!

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