Yes, Medicare is under attack
David Arthur writes: Re. “On Campaign Scorecard” (yesterday). Hear-hear to Geoff Edwards yesterday and his critique of the piece “Crikey Campaign Scorecard: Scare campaigning sets the tone”. I gave up reading Crikey’s daily Election Wrap some weeks ago because it’s such a frivolous waste of my time. And particularly disappointing lately is Bernard Keane, once a regular source of enlightenment and a must read, but now very ho-hum.
I would have thought Labor’s Medicare privatisation campaign is not just justifiable as an election tactic but essential, one to be drawn to the voter’s attention. Can you really trust the Malcolm (but actually his back-screen puppet masters) with his hand on heart, ‘we won’t touch it’ stuff? Medical care and education should be the two pillars of our Australian society. But look at the demise of our education system over the last ten or so years and the Lib’s re-emphasis from public to private schooling. The shifting of financial resources to the latter is clandestine but deliberate. And the decline of our educational ranking compared to other comparable counties speaks volumes. The voter should not forget it was all carefully championed by John Howard and his likeminded travellers because exclusivity, private ownership and the profit motive are in their genes. The demise of the tax payer owned vocational TAFE system, once acknowledged as the best in the world, is criminal in its destruction. But, of course for some, these changes brought with them opportunities for incredible wealth. Do Bernard and some of the Crikey Scorecard cohort really think that the Neocons and their supporters don’t see Medicare as the next Golden Goose?
This is right Turnbull and his mates will destroy Medicare if they get the chance that is their agenda , private health to take over everything, Bupa already has it’s own Medical centres in Shopping malls ,Dental clinics too Turnbull is worse than I thought he would be but then he is a Liberal and they want everything run by the corporate sector, they don’t want to govern for the people ,only the rich , so hopefully Labor can rise from the Ashes!!
Every action of the Coalition since Fraser’s original privatisation of Mrdibank has pointed in the same direction. Subsidies for private health cover and private hospitals, defunding of Medicare and public health services. Yes, Medicare will be dismantled by the Coalition, step by step. They are already half way there. That’s why I keep my taxpayer subsidised private cover current.
Great comment, David. I was wondering how long it would take for someone to equate the private school funding to the private health insurance rebate. The former has worked well…NOT. By diverting funds to the private school sector and starving the public schools, our ranking continues to drop when compared internationally. And this LNP government want to increase the funding divide further!
Make no mistake, this is the blue-print for our universal healthcare system…the American way ‘writ large’. Bill Shorten is right to point out the LNP plans to destroy Medicare…death by a thousand cuts, hoping no one will notice!!