Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister, and I referred to a previous answer he gave a couple of questions ago about the government. He said: 'We are determined to protect bulk-billing for children and concession card holders.' Does the Prime Minister's answer signal a government intention to limit bulk-billing to children and concession card holders or to introduce means testing for bulk-billing?

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

No and no—absolutely no and no. I just want to make it absolutely crystal clear today, as I did yesterday, that any government imposed co-payment, any co-payment, is dead, buried and cremated. I cannot make it clearer than that. It is dead, buried and cremated. But it has always been the case that doctors can charge a fee if they choose to do so. No doctor has ever been compelled to bulk-bill. If members opposite are trying to suggest that doctors should be compelled to bulk-bill, I would like to see the reaction from the great medical profession of this country.

We will do our best to ensure that Medicare goes from strength to strength. That is what we want to do—we want to ensure that Medicare goes from strength to strength. We do want to protect bulk-billing for the vulnerable. We absolutely do want to protect bulk-billing for the vulnerable. We want to ensure that the vulnerable people of this country continue to get the best possible health care. We want to ensure that the great strengths of our universal Medicare system continue, but the only way we can do that effectively is to keep working with the medical profession to ensure that our system is more efficient and more effective and that all examples of waste are tackled and eliminated so that we can drive every single health dollar as far as it possibly can go.