Ms Catherine King (Ballarat, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Again, my question is to the Prime Minister. I refer to the Prime Minister's previous answer. How can this government claim the secret Medicare task force is no longer government policy when the deputy secretary of the health department has confirmed in Senate estimates today that the government will continue to engage with the exact same task force? Why is the Prime Minister determined to move Australia towards an American, user-pays healthcare system?

Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Minister for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Guess what? Labor still hate private health insurance and we still love private health insurance. We could not be clearer. It is not our policy. It will never be our policy. But it will always be their policy to rip the heart out of private health insurance. Our position has been absolutely clear in our discussions with everybody. This idea of ripping the private health insurance rebate apart is not something we would support, but it is something, again, that Labor support. I repeat, from only a few weeks ago, 'Fears ALP to axe $6bn health insurance rebate' and the very interesting line:

The private health insurance rebate could face further cuts under Labor after confidential discussions between insurance groups and the opposition …

So there is the shadow Treasurer, who was caught red-handed and outed for trawling around the private health insurance sector looking to slash their rebate or abolish it completely. We are not going to. You rule it out now.