Julian McGauran (Victoria, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

‘Thick’—‘thick-headed’. Let me read some things into the record:

Even on the most conservative estimates, health fund membership would plummet and premiums would rise well over the trends of recent years …

… particularly private hospitals. Fewer privately-insured people mean fewer private hospital episodes …

I am quoting selectively, I admit, and from page to page.

The savings suggested by the Government appear to be illusory at best …

Certainly, there will be a massive cost shift from the Commonwealth and the privately insured to the States through additional demand on public hospitals.

And the states have already had something to say about that.