Fed: Govt under fire over bulk-billing rates =2
Senator Patterson told ABC Radio: "I said it's disappointing, we're looking at theissue of access and affordability."
"It's no good just hiding behind and building up bulk-billing rates which you can doand get them back up to levels when we first came in and last year and the year before,"
she said.
"But what that did was hide inequalities.
She said it hid the fact people in areas with fewer doctors were not being bulk-billedwhile the service was freely available in the cities.
Senator Patterson denied there was a deliberate policy to run down bulk-billing tosupport a scrapping of Medicare.
"What I want to do is make sure we have fairness, we have equity and we have reasonableaccess," she said.
The minister said she was not advised of the declining rates of bulk-billing in December2001 and made moves to boost the number of doctors in rural and regional areas once shelearned of the figures.
"I was concerned when I got the first figures, I've been looking at it, I'm working on it.
"I'll work on the way that increases access and equity ... these things always taketime and of course they have to fit into budgetary cycles."
Mr Smith said Prime Minister John Howard was again trying to run down Medicare havingfailed while in opposition.
"John Howard couldn't destroy Medicare and bulk-billing through the front door in the1980s when he was opposition leader because he couldn't get public support," he said.
"Now he's happy by process of stealth and attrition to see that occur through the backdoorand that's what these documents prove."
AAP sal/pw
KEYWORD: MEDICARE 2 CANBERRA
No comments:
Post a Comment