The people say NO to paying for blood, urine tests and pap smears

This petition is approaching 150,000 signatures in just days; an amount that will reverberate around Canberra and the senate cross benchers. 

How many times do us plebes have to scream from the trenches that we don't want to pay for these basic medical services! Over and over the Abbott and Turnbull now Lieberals have tried it on in this term of gov. Will they ever get the message? 

Now yet again, the public storm clouds are brewing for the Lieberals in the senate.

Last year I had six blood tests. I have a minimum of 4 per year to ascertain the CD4 count and confirm that I remain HIV undetectable. The incentives for blood tests have been removed for chronically ill pensioners like me as well. How the fuck are pensioners supposed to "absorb" a bloody co-payment then? 

*edit: We who are HIV+ rely on 4 blood tests each year as part of the strategy to eradicate the disease. That strategy being to get tested, get treated, and thereby become "undetectable" (the HIV viral load being so low in the blood that it's undetectable by today's tests, being so meaning that it's just about impossible to pass it on even in unsafe sex). To charge HIV+ people with limited resources will mean some of them will not get blood tested and not know if they are still undetectable. 

In short, this likely charge for blood tests is endangering the eradication of HIV in Australia.

To Health Minister Sussan Ley, 

We demand pap smears and pathology services remain free of charge. 

It is disgusting that your government is cutting bulk billing incentives for pap smears, MRI's, urine/blood tests, X-rays and ultrasounds. According to the Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia president Michael Harrison, the cuts will force patients to pay at least $30 for a pap smear, urine or blood test. The Australian Diagnostic Imaging Association claims people could pay up to $173 for an MRI scan. 

These cuts are unfair to the average Australian, but will especially hurt women. Free and accessible pathology tests are key to ensuring early detection of cervical cancer, STI's, UTI's and pregnancy. Late detection will lead to MORE cost to the taxpayer in the long run. These essential services are a backbone of our world class healthcare system. 

This is yet another attack by a Liberal government on Australia's already cash-starved Medicare system. Sussan Ley, stop trying to distance yourself from the inevitable outcome - by your cutting subsidies for practitioners and pathology companies, they’re forced to charge a fee to make up for the loss, which will fall unfairly on patients across the country. 

We won't stand for it. We demand the Liberal government scrap this policy and ensure that pap smears and pathology services remain free. Tell Turnbull to get fucked here