Best way to finance Medicare is to raise levy: architect of scheme

Professor Deeble, who was co-author of the proposals for Medibank and then Medicare dismissed claims by federal health minister Peter Dutton that Medicare risked becoming unaffordable unless a $6 fee was paid for each visit to a general medical practitioner.
Marking the 30th anniversary of Medicare, which was introduced by the Hawke government, Professor Deeble said that in an advanced society “anything is sustainable” and if the society wants it.
Mr Dutton claims health costs will become “unmanageable” without change and that figures show an escalation in health spending per person underlined the need to cut “waste”.
The federal government’s commission of audit is considering whether introduction of a $6 fee to see a GP should attract a private-health-fund benefit, which consumder advocates say would increase inequality.
Professor Deeble said that Australians would not accept any move to restrict access to the universal health sche and its “life-preserving services”.
He suggested raising the Medicare levy to 2.75 per cent to help meet growing health costs, but said he expected that would require political courage.
Mr Dutton said “with millions of Australians facing the challenges of obesity, diabetes and dentia into the next generation, our task now is to make sure we strengthen and improve our health syst into the future”.
Prime Minister Mr Tony Abbott, said on 1 February he has no plans to introduce mandatory co-payments for bulk-billed GP consultations.
Speaking on the day Medicare marked its 30th birthday, Mr Abbott told reporters: “Nothing is being considered, nothing has been proposed, nothing is planned.
“He was in Brisbane to launch the Griffith by-election campaign of former president of both The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Ophthalmologists and the Australian Medical Association, Dr Bill Glasson, who was attpting (unsuccessfully) to win former prime minister Kevin Rudd’s former seat of Griffith.
The push for the introduction of a $6 fee came from a former Abbott policy adviser and was outlined in a submission the federal government’s commission of audit.
The commission’s recommendations to the government are being kept secret, however the opposition’s successful by-election candidate, Ms Terri Butler, claimed Dr Glasson supports co-payments.