THE Abbott government must drop its proposals for a GP co-payment and a continued freeze on Medicare rebates, a top rural doctor said this week.
Rural Doctors Association of Australia president Dr Dennis Pashen was in Canberra this week pushing for the government to change it controversial health plans.
The RDAA on Wednesday sent Health Minister Sussan Ley a brief budget submission, urging the two key measures to be dropped.
Dr Pashen said while he had met Ms Ley recently, the government’s current approach to health policy was ‘ignoring the evidence’.
He said the Medicare reforms planned amounted to pushing people out of primary care and into state-run hospitals, reigniting a long-standing “blame game” in Australian health politics.
While Ms Ley was undertaking consultations, her office did not respond to questions on specific plans.