No co-payment for pensioners?

This Abbott adviser guy is living on a different planet than the rest of us. Terry Barnes, Abbott's ex adviser and chairman of some far right wing investigation into Medicare, apparently is somewhat surprised at his recommendation for a $5-6 GP co-payment not going down well with Australians. Seriously, you don't have to be rocket scientists to know that there would be huge opposition to any idea of the sort. Yet he says he's being "harassed by the left" FFS. Being as pulling to bit's Medicare is extremely unpopular with the great majority of us, calling all those people harassing lefties isn't constructive or true. Although just about all of us would be to the left of Barnes anyway.

So now he's gone like oh, ..... gee wiz..... I had no idea that I would get this reaction. Five or six dollars may be chicken feed to him, but to pensioners, the chronically ill, and other disadvantaged people would certainly feel the pinch of a $5 doctor visit. 

Anyway now this bloke Barnes has backed down just a touch:

THE man who proposed a $5 fee on bulk-billing doctors to the government's razor gang has backed down after four days of criticism and wants families and pensioners exempt from the charge. 

Prime Minister Tony Abbott's former health adviser Terry Barnes says he is feeling "harassed" by the criticism his proposal has generated and that his plan may need fine tuning. 

It comes as former Australia Medical Association president Bill Glasson, who is running as a Liberal National Party candidate in former prime minister Kevin Rudd's seat, has backed the $5 fee. more

Mentioned in the article as well is a very good point about free visits to public hospitals. Some hard up people will go to Emergency at the hospital to see a doctor for free, clogging the fuck out of Emergency. What solution? I'd bet my bottom dollar that it's going to be to include hospital doctors too.

Of course this whole argument is ridiculous. Why the hell hit the sick for an imaginary budget crisis?  Even if one existed, why hit the sick?  It's like they want to punish people who are. 

A simple and fair solution to address a real budget crisis would be to simply increase the Medicare levy by a touch. But it doesn't need to be. There is no budget crisis.