Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Minister for Health) Share this | Hansard source

The member for Jagajaga was a great friend of Medicare, because she worked with Brian Howe, the last health minister to introduce a co-payment. We looked at what Labor did otherwise. The honourable member asks whether or not there are other examples of a co-payment and the way in which it operates. There are a couple of examples, as it turns out. One is the PBS. Australians know, the people in the gallery know, that in this country, when you go to the chemist and you see the pharmacist, regardless of how sick you are and regardless of how poor you are, in this country you will pay $6.10 for the first script and each and every script until you get about 60 scripts. So the effective co-payment that Labor introduced when it comes to medicine for the sickest and poorest is about $360. We say that we want to retain bulk-billing in our co-payment proposal. We do that so that we can help the sickest and the poorest. Exactly what we have proposed in this policy, Labor did not do when they introduced a co-payment when it came to the PBS.

Secondly, we have said that for concession card holders and for those people under the age of 16, once you get to 10 services within a year—a maximum of $70—you do not have to pay anymore than that within a 12-month period. Let us contemplate that for a moment. You can go and see a GP on five separate occasions, you can have three blood tests and you can have two x-rays for a maximum amount of $70 within a 12-month period. I believe that is a fair and balanced approach. Labor's approach, as we know with the economy, is to spend the money and worry about the problem afterwards. I know that Labor cannot handle the economy, they cannot handle health and they certainly cannot handle themselves. I am going to have a lot more to say about other co-payment models in future days and weeks ahead.

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