Tony Zappia (Makin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Manufacturing) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Last week, the Rural Doctors Association of Australia issued a press release warning of the terrible impact a $7 co-payment will have on rural communities. RDAA President, Dr Ian Kamerman, said:

The $7 co-payment in its entirety needs urgent reconsideration, but trying to charge it to the rural terminally ill, aged-care patients, Indigenous patients and other high-need and disadvantaged patient groups, and for the child consults is a step too far.

Does the government really expect rural GPs to charge these patients the $7 co-payment before they will provide treatment … or does it instead anticipate that most doctors will simply cop the cost as yet another impost on general practice?

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Requiring the $7 co-payment for aged-care or palliative care visits is not only insensitive, but poor public policy and a false economy.

Why doesn't the Abbott government take the concerns of rural people seriously? Why will the government not listen to the people who know best about the impacts of a $7 GP co-payment on families and drop this mean tax on families around Australia?