Defunct GP co-pay plan weaponised in election politicking
Labor has dragged up the Coalition's future minister for health's support for its 2014 proposal to introduce a $7 co-payment that was later dropped
The federal Opposition has brought back the spectre of the $7 GP co-payment in an attack on the newly announced successor to Minister for Health Greg Hunt.
As widely predicted, the government has announced that Minister for Families and Social Services Anne Ruston will take over as health minister if the Coalition is re-elected on 21 May.
Labor leader Anthony Albanese immediately highlighted Ms Ruston’s support for the Coalition’s politically disastrous co-payment proposal in 2014.
At the time, Ms Ruston argued that charging patients for bulk-billed GP consultations was necessary to curtail “completely and utterly unsustainable” health budget costs.
