Rolf M. Zinkernagel. Photo: AP
A Nobel prize-winning medical researcher has questioned the federal government’s decision to link its proposed medical research fund with unpopular health savings, such as the controversial GP visit fee.
Rolf Zinkernagel, who together with Peter Doherty won the 1996 Nobel prize in physiology or medicine for work on how the immune system recognised virus-infected cells, said the research fund and a fee for visiting the doctor were fine ideas, but linking them was a mistake.
“The idea to have some sort of medical research fund is excellent, no doubt about it,” he said.
“I personally wouldn’t have chosen that particular pathway. I would have, for example, gone to the lottery fund.”