Editorial: Health takes centre stage

EDITORIAL: HEALTH is shaping as one of the key policy battlefields in this long and arduous Federal Election campaign.

HEALTH, that most thorny of issues, is shaping as one of the key policy battlefields in this long and arduous Federal Election campaign.

The Federal Government decision, initially introduced under the Abbott regime in 2014, to extend the freeze on Medicare rebates until 2020 has ignited a storm of protest from Labor Leader Bill Shorten and the Australian Medical Association.

The AMA and other medical groups have come out punching, demanding the Turnbull Coalition overturn the unpopular decision to implement a two-year extension of the $37 frozen rate from 2018 to 2020 to save $925 million.

The powerful national doctors’ lobby says when Medicare payments made to general practitioners do not increase with inflation, it forces GPs to pass costs on to patients. The AMA labels the freeze as a co-payment tax by stealth — a powerful appeal to the volatile sentiment in the community that created such an almighty public backlash to the original announcement of the Abbott co-payment policy.

GPs have launched a campaign issuing prescriptions with warnings to patients they will pay more as a result of the freeze. This will speak directly to those who will fork out the extra money.

Shorten has joined the boisterous chorus of criticism, building immense pressure on Health Minister Sussan Ley. However, Labor has its own problems in this sensitive policy area. As Ley has quite rightly pointed out, we have not heard from Shorten about what he wants to do in the Labor policy void.

It was expected after Shorten’s ferocious attack on the freeze that reversing it would likely form part of Labor’s health policy. No word yet. Watch this space.

It is fascinating that on the other side of the world the American public is tackling the same issue in its exhausting presidential race. Democrat presidential candidate contender Bernie Sanders has called for a “Medicare for all” health system. Most recent polls show he has popular support for this.

Democrat Barack Obama’s eight-year presidential reign has been dominated by the healthcare debate.

Billionaire Republican hopeful Donald Trump claimed his economic policies, grounded in staunch protectionism and trade warfare, would make the US so rich that no changes would be needed in Medicare. However, in recent days his position on this appears to be weakening.

This debate is hard enough at the best of times, but when it gets caught up the hysteria of an election campaign the volatility ramps up to fever pitch.

Help our farmers

THE true severity of the farming crisis is only just emerging. Thousands of people, both on the dairy farms and in related industries, are affected. Some will be forced off the land. The damage could be severe.

People on the ground are desperately concerned, both for people’s livelihoods and their welfare. They need our support.

It requires a whole of community response, from the people at the coalface, to State and finally the Federal Government.

A strong rescue package is needed as a matter of urgency.