Anthony Albanese has been brandishing a Medicare card insisting it’s all you need to see a GP, but it could prove to be his undoing | Samantha Maiden

The thing that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has been travelling the length and breadth of Australia brandishing proudly could actually be his undoing, writes Samantha Maiden.

Health Minister Mark Butler let the cat out of the Medicare bag in the dying weeks of the federal election.

The Prime Minister has been travelling the length and breadth of Australia brandishing a Medicare card and insisting that’s all you will need to see a GP.

“You just need your Medicare card, not your credit card, because Labor created Medicare will strengthen Medicare,” Anthony Albanese has said ad nauseam.

Rinse and repeat.

But it turns out you have to read the fine print.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has been travelling the length and breadth of Australia brandishing a Medicare card and insisting that’s all you will need to see a GP. Picture: Jason Edwards / NewsWire

Grilled by opposition health spokeswoman Anne Ruston on whether Labor was “misleading” Australian people on the matter during a National Press Club debate, Mr Butler said some patients would still need to pay a gap fee.

“We’ve been very clear with our model. We think that we can get to 90 per cent of bulk billing for non-concessional patients,” Mr Butler said.

“Our modelling suggests that if GPs take up this offer, those GPs for whom it would be financially beneficial, we can get to 90 per cent of those Australians as well.

“There will be Australians, and we’ve been very clear about this – there will be Australians who will continue to be charged a gap fee.

“But we think that we can get to 90 per cent for all Australians under these arrangements.”

We shall see.

Coalition Leader Peter Dutton could have been hammering Medicare every day – if only he didn’t have exactly the same policy. Picture: Richard Dobson / NewsWire

In political parlance, this is what you call insurance.

If the Albanese government is re-elected, Mr Butler can point to these comments when voters get hit with the T&Cs.

But it’s a message Coalition Leader Peter Dutton could have been hammering every day – if only he didn’t have exactly the same policy.

Instead, the Liberals have had to accuse Labor of a scare campaign – not without foundation – with one hand behind their back because they can’t criticise their own policy.

“Australians, rightly, are proud of Medicare, which is why it has been so disappointing to see the prime minister, the leader of this country, behaving like a political vulture, preying on hardworking, elderly, sick and vulnerable Australians using this as a campaign to fuel his Mediscare campaign,” Liberal health spokeswoman Anne Ruston said.

“And while the PM is out there waving his Medicare card around and trying to lie his way back to The Lodge, Australians are living with the reality that our health system is under real pressure at the moment.”

If the Albanese government is re-elected, Mr Butler can point to these comments when voters get hit with the T&Cs. Picture: Jason Edwards / NewsWire

Fine words, but too late, one suspects, to stop Medicare providing CPR to another Labor leader.

There are also other big questions. Such as why was Peter Dutton in an absolute froth about charging a $7 fee instead of bulk billing people 10 years ago because they could “afford it” then, but has now completely abandoned his previous mission?

His record as health minister during the Abbott years over bulk billing and health costs was always going to be front and centre in his first campaign as leader.

“Those nine years of nasty cuts and calculated neglect have precipitated the crisis that confronts us today,’’ Mr Butler tut-tutted this week.

It’s puzzling when you consider how obviously predictable the Medicare attacks were against Peter Dutton that more wasn’t done to inoculate the Liberal Party.

To be fair, there have been times that the Liberal leader has dealt with the issue adroitly.

Two weeks ago at a Sky News debate, Sydney resident Prith wanted to know all about Labor’s plan to stop the rise of gap fees.

“All you need is this little thing here, Prith. You just need your Medicare card, not your credit card, because Labor created Medicare and will strengthen Medicare, and we’ll make sure that in the future... we get those bulk billing rates back up to 90 per cent,’’ Mr Albanese said.

Mr Dutton had a zinger of his own. He asked Prith if she only needed a Medicare card. Or did she actually need her credit card as well.

“Yes,’’ she replied.

But that’s been a bright spot in the Liberal campaign that has largely been going backwards.

Life has a funny way of levelling the score.

That Medicare card that the Prime Minister loves to brandish will probably turn out to be the single biggest factor if he is re-elected.

But it could also prove his undoing, or that of his successor as prime minister, if Labor can’t deliver on its big Medicare promises.

Originally published as Anthony Albanese has been brandishing a Medicare card insisting it’s all you need to see a GP, but it could prove to be his undoing | Samantha Maiden