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CANBERRA - Labor's health spokeswoman Nicola Roxon has defended the Opposition's decision to keep the Medicare safety net, despite the scheme favouring wealthier Australians.
Labor yesterday ended three years of opposition to the safety net by promising not to axe the benefit because more than a million people need it.
The federal government has described the move as an extraordinary backflip done mainly for electoral reasons.
Ms Roxon today said the safety net was inequitable because of inequities in health services across the country, which Labor would work to improve.
"We know that the take-up is a bit uneven around the country and that's why we're prepared to invest in the GP super-clinics that we're planning, which will absolutely prioritise going to areas where there is a low take-up of the safety net," she said.
"But the truth is this is a universal program, it doesn't have universal benefits because there are some parts of the country where they simply cannot get the services that are needed, and that's a failing of the Howard government."
Labor says its A$220 million ($260.54 million) GP super-clinics proposal will be a priority in outer urban, rural and remote communities, where people are not taking up safety net benefits as much as their city counterparts.
But Ms Roxon played down inequities in the scheme, denying it was effectively a subsidy for wealthier patients who could afford the most expensive doctors.
"I don't think that's an accurate description," she said.
She said more than 4000 people each year from her Melbourne western suburban electorate of Gellibrand, which was not wealthy, drew some benefit from the safety net.
"It is for people who have high health care costs and we are going to make sure that we get services to communities that don't have access to them so this will be a more universal protection," she said.
Ms Roxon said more Australians were under enormous financial pressure following rises in the cost of groceries, child care, petrol and interest rates.
"We are not going to take away something that provides some relief for people with high health care costs when they are facing so many other pressures because of the Howard government," she said.
The safety net introduced in 2004 now reimburses 80 per cent of out-of-pocket, non-hospital medical costs above $1000 per year. The threshold is A$500 for low-income earners, families with dependent children and pensioners.
Deputy Labor leader Julia Gillard was highly critical of the safety net when she was health spokeswoman, calling it a "sham" which would cause higher medical fees and a costs blowout.
Fees for some medical services, such as obstetrics, have risen significantly since the scheme was introduced.
- AAP
