Axe The GP Tax - AMA

Speaking of the gov "narrative" (budget emergency, exploding health costs, bla) it seems to me that there's another narrative that taken shape in the community. This one hasn't been invented by anyone though, this narrative has formed because of what this gov has done. The real narrative that's taken shape now is that the gov knew all along that they were going to do this, and when people started catching on to that they lied about not changing anything. After they won the dreamed up an imaginary "budget crisis" and set about doing everything they'd planned to do originally, blaming Labor for fucking up everything. This narrative isn't likely to receive the same derision as the gov narrative, simply because the gov has been caught in it's own lies.

Anyway, so the latest ones to come out against the GP tax is the Australian Medical Association itself, which it reckons is leading the charge. The president of the AMA Brian Owler, has written an opinion piece in the Sydney Morning Herald no less, incredibly scathing of the proposed Medicare changes. 

The voices of opposition to the GP tax are now a cacophony .......

Again, the reality is different for those at the coal face that it is in the minds of the gov. The gov says black and the reality is white. Like all the other double speak they use. 

The reality is that there is no health expenditure crisis at all, that in fact it's actually fallen in recent years as a percentage of expenditure.

The health measures in the federal budget are almost universally opposed by the people who provide health services in Australia. The Australian Medical Association is at the forefront of this opposition. 

The message is clear: the measures add up to bad health policy. The health of Australians is too important for healthcare to be an ideological toy. 

While the AMA strongly represents the interests of doctors, we will always put the interests of our patients first. This is our professional obligation. It is why we oppose the budget measures. They will hurt our patients, especially the sickest and most vulnerable.

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For months, Australians were pre-medicated for the budget on the narrative that Australia has a budget emergency, with the finger of blame pointed at an out-of-control health budget. 

The health budget is not out of control. As a proportion of GDP, Australia’s healthcare spending has remained constant. In 2011 it was 8.93 per cent compared to the OECD average of 9.3 per cent. The proportion of this contributed by the federal government expenditure remains constant at around 41 per cent. 

As a proportion of federal government expenditure, health expenditure has actually fallen - from 18.1 per cent in 2006-07 to 16.1 per cent in 2012-13. 

The co-payment is unfair and unnecessary. Ideology has pushed this proposal too far. It is poor health policy. The Prime Minister should step in and scrap this policy. If not, it deserves to fail in the Senate. Read more