Latest news with #Mediscare
Sky News AU
4 days ago
- Health
- Sky News AU
Dr Nick Coatsworth points out three 'major flaws' with Labor's $8.5 billion Medicare investment
Labor's $8.5 billion investment in Medicare has been crucified by a prominent doctor, who has pinpointed some of the major "flaws" with the bill. The massive commitment to Medicare was announced prior to Labor's election victory, and pledged to deliver an additional 18 million bulk-billed GP visits each year. "For the first time, Labor will expand bulk-billing incentives to all Australians and create an additional new incentive payment for practices that bulk bill every patient," a statement from Health Minister Mark Butler read earlier this year. "This will mean 9 out of 10 GP visits will be bulk billed by 2030, boosting the number of fully bulk billed practices to around 4,800 nationally – triple the current number." It was reported by The Australian that the Department of Health, Ageing and Disability told Mr Butler that about a quarter of GPs are not expected to take up the government's new incentive scheme designed to boost bulk-billing rates. Former deputy chief medical officer Dr Nick Coatsworth said this revelation was a "major concern" and indicated how the policy was "flawed". "This was likely known by the Department of Health and Labor before the election. It raises a fundamental democratic question about whether the public servants involved disclosed what they knew about the program to the Coalition," he told "Either the Department's modelling was flawed and they have since amended it, or they knew the policy was flawed and failed to disclose it. Either way, it's a major concern." As he continued to come down on the policy, he told there were "three major design flaws" with it. "There are three major design flaws. Firstly, the remuneration is inadequate for GPs who are not bulk-billing to make the switch," he said. "Secondly, it rewards shorter consultations which patients and doctors have been frustrated with for many years. "Finally, and most importantly, the taxpayer must increase payments to doctors who are already bulk-billing, but with few doctors actually switching, it will be billions of wasted dollars." After urging the Coalition to "fight" against Labor's "Mediscare campaigning" and describing the bulk-billing solution as "more theatre than reform" in Quadrant magazine, Dr Coatsworth launched another attack on Labor's election campaign and the direction they're taking Medicare. "Nothing at all has progressed," he said. "To win an election Albanese and Butler have cemented Medicare in the 1970s and failed to adapt to the new realities of ageing and chronic disease that require a different funding model."
Sky News AU
22-07-2025
- Health
- Sky News AU
‘Always nonsense': Labor's Medicare lies exposed in new reports
Sky News host Danica De Giorgio discusses Prime Minister Anthony Albanese winning the election on a 'big fat lie' around Medicare. 'It is virtually impossible to find a bulk-billing GP clinic these days and when you do manage to find one it is so hard to get in, or you are stuck in the waiting room with hundreds of others to be seen,' Ms De Giorgio said. 'Yet, as you all know, the PM spent most of his election campaign flapping about his Medicare card like it was his best friend and reviving the Mediscare campaign.'
Sky News AU
22-07-2025
- Politics
- Sky News AU
Labor's election ‘Mediscare' campaign ‘stunt' promise lashed
Sky News host Steve Price discusses Labor's 'stupid' Mediscare campaign against the Opposition. 'The election Mediscare campaign, ten weeks ago, that saw millions of Australians fall for a stunt so blatantly false that we should all now feel pretty stupid,' Mr Price said. 'Time and time again … anyone who has been to the doctor in many places around Australia knows that finding a bulk-billing practice that does not have a gap payment … is about as hard as the prime minister getting a meeting with Donald Trump.'
Sky News AU
05-05-2025
- Politics
- Sky News AU
'Not in the fight in any sense': Credlin's damning assessment of Liberal Party's election campaign following resounding defeat
The Liberal Party's failure to fight back against Labor's campaign messaging was a key factor in Opposition Leader Peter Dutton's landslide defeat in the federal election, according to Sky News host Peta Credlin. Labor secured a monumental victory on Saturday, currently holding 87 seats over the Coalition's 39 with some seats still yet to be called. Speaking on Monday night, Credlin said it was not the result she was "hoping" for, but that she ultimately had to concede the Liberal Party got it wrong. "The Liberals ran a bad campaign. It was a it hurts to say because a lot of the people I know in the campaign team, in the Liberal Party and with the Leader, I've worked with closely in elections where we have won," she said. Credlin said the Liberal Party was "found wanting" almost across the board as it fell short in a number of areas where it needed to be strong in order to pose a threat in the election. "Ads ran way too late, no real negative campaign to speak of, a failure to tackle the character hits against (Mr Dutton), completely flat-footed on Labor's lies around things such as Mediscare," she said. "Now they knew that would come at them. Previous experience told them MediScare would come at them. "This was a Liberal Party campaign full of the sugar hit of announcements, but without the substantive policies that underpin them. Where were the documents? Where were proper costings? Where were things properly socialised months and months earlier so that people had a chance to digest them, understand them, know how the policies would help them? "The campaign team... they wear the blame here, sure, but ultimately, policy comes down to the work of the shadow ministry and if the MPs don't do the work, then you end up with the result we got on Saturday night." The host criticised the Liberal Party's lack of fight in the campaign, as it struggled to bite back against Labor's messaging. "You've heard me say it time and time again. You will lose 100 per cent of the fights you are not in. This is exactly what happened on Saturday night. The Liberals were not in the fight in any sense," she said. "Not in the policy work, not in negative campaigning, the lack of rebuttal of Labor lies, not in picture value day-to-day, not in message simplicity, not in how they put their key players like Jacinta Price and Andrew Hastie in the freezer. "Now why? We'll never know." Credlin said the Liberals never challenged Labor on its claim Mr Dutton's nuclear plan would cost $600 billion, nor did it fight back in response to Labor's scare campaign on Medicare. She said in order to beat a first-term government the Opposition had to "go early" and "keep the contest simple". Credlin also pointed to how deceptive the results of a federal election could be, arguing how the size of Labor's victory was down to where the votes fell, but that the overall margin of counts has been much more slim. "You've got 4.62 million Australians who voted Labor and 4.23 million who voted for the Coalition. Now that's a difference of just 390,000 votes," Credlin said, as the national votes are still being counted. "But thanks to where they all fell and the preference flows, tonight, Labor has got 87 seats and the Coalition hasn't even bagged 40." The Prime Minister won the election convincingly despite recording a primary vote of only about 34.7 per cent, a number which will continue to change as ballots are counted. In comparison, when Labor won in a landslide in 2007, Kevin Rudd did it with a primary vote of 43.4 per cent. When Labor candidate Bill Shorten lost in the 2016 election, he had a primary vote at 34.73 per cent, around the same as Anthony Albanese's figure while enjoying a major victory. A significant drop in voter turnout has also likely affected the lowly numbers recorded so far. "In 2022, Australia had the lowest voter turnout since the First World War of 89.82% of the electorate. Right now, according to the AEC's website, that turnout is tracking at 77 per cent," Credlin said. "So to put that too into perspective, that's a massive drop that says voter engagement in our elections is falling fast. See, this is why you need perspective and analysing election results. You've got to know how to read the numbers because in the end, for all the spin, the numbers are key."
Sky News AU
04-05-2025
- Politics
- Sky News AU
Sorry doesn't cut it: How female voters turned on the Coalition's confusing cost-of-living pitch in the space of just a few months
Just over two hours after polls closed on Saturday, the election results unfolded into a story not only about party leaders but about two women. There was the rightly-proud Jodie Haydon planting a passionate smacker on her victorious fiancé Anthony Albanese, now a back-to-back PM. And then stoic Kirilly Dutton, her eyes brimming and mustering up a smile on stage for her husband Peter while he apologised to the nation for losing the only political fight of his life that mattered. 'We didn't do well enough during this campaign,' Mr Dutton said, swallowing hard. 'That much is obvious tonight. I accept full responsibility for that.' But in reality the now ex Opposition leader should have said sorry for letting down Australian women, especially working mums, because he pitched confusion ahead of reassurance especially on household finance. It was no secret that women had abandoned Mr Dutton before Saturday's vote. For 11 days before the ballot box, we all knew via a Newspoll for The Australian that there was a staggering reversal in the attitude of female voters who once favoured the Coalition. A lead of 51-49 in January slumped to an eye-watering shift of 46-54 to Labor by April. Just like the Coalition failed to capitalise on momentum after the failed Voice referendum, they did not seriously address the concerns of women even though the data was there. Three words Mr Dutton - cost of living. And if you lose the CEO of households across Australia you are, to be plain speaking, stuffed. The Coalition's crushing defeat is more than a political misstep. It is a backlash from women fed up with being treated like a test subject in focus groups. No matter our views on Trump and a legitimate fatigue with woke ideology, we didn't want Mr Dutton to align himself with the MAGA movement as a campaign strategy. We didn't want more than a dozen campaign press conferences at petrol stations talking about 12 months of somewhat cheaper fuel, a tactic which only reinforced his blokey focus. Mr Dutton's ham-fisted attempt to roll back remote work then hit women the hardest and you have to wonder why he did not see the backlash coming. The eventual policy backflip did nothing to suture the wound especially when approximately 40 per cent of Australians now work from home on a regular basis. Sorry, Mr Dutton said. Again with the 'sorry' from the first Federal Opposition leader to then lose his seat. 'We made a mistake on the policy,' Mr Dutton later admitted. 'We got it wrong. We're listening to what people have to say and we apologise.' He also backed down on a goal to slash 41,000 public service jobs which meant many perplexed female voters I know were now asking one key thing. How will the Coalition deliver its major election promises when they are linked to savings from the public sector cuts? Sure Labor ran a dirty campaign with Mediscare and lured voters with fear politics but the party did prioritise the material concerns of women and made those policies public early, forcing the Coalition to play catch up. These included the much-vaunted universal early childhood education pledge for a guaranteed three days of subsidised childcare per week, investment in women's health and significant funding to tackling domestic and family violence. In his concession speech, Mr Dutton said: 'One of the great honours of being the leader of this party is we have met people from every side, every corner, the length and breadth of this country. And there are many amazing stories.' But did those stories - particularly from women - sink in? We are not liabilities to be managed. The message here for the freshly buffed-up Labor is important to note, too. The trust women have placed in your promises is not a blank cheque. You got the female votes and now it is time to deliver. Louise Roberts is a journalist and editor who has worked as a TV and radio commentator in Australia, the UK and the US. Louise is a winner of the Peter Ruehl Award for Outstanding Columnist in the NRMA Kennedy Awards for Excellence in Journalism and has been shortlisted in other awards for her opinion work.
