WA: Crean pledges to restore bulk billing without extra taxes
PERTH, Aug 6 AAP - Labor was committed to saving Medicare and restoring the rate ofbulk billing without increasing taxes, Opposition Leader Simon Crean said today.
He said the federal government was not using its health budget effectively and hadfailed to address the dramatic decline in bulk billing over the past three years.
"The package that I've developed involves no increase in taxes, a rearrangement ofthe funding, a reordering of priorities to get bulk billing back to where it was beforeHoward came in - back over the 80 per cent," Mr Crean told Perth radio 6PR.
He said Labor would restore the patient rebate to doctors to 100 per cent, up fromthe present 85 per cent, which would help restore bulk billing rates.
However, Mr Crean refused to be drawn on whether he planned to abolish the privatehealth insurance rebate.
"People and families have factored that in to their cost of living," he said.
"We're not going to put them under more financial pressure.
"But the truth of it is, we must look at how that money is being spent because it'suncapped ... and we've got to look at all of the health expenditure and see if that canbe reordered."
AAP alm/ldj/jlw
KEYWORD: MEDICARE CREAN
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