Dr Nick Coatsworth: Tony Abbott’s notorious $7 co-payment plan was probably a good idea
'Now, we have patients paying $100 to see a GP, not $7,' he says.
It was a policy disaster that brought Tony Abbott’s reign as Australian Prime Minister to an early end.
Now, it is being suggested that time has shown those who raged against his $7 co-payment vision were very, very wrong.
“We were still in a situation where we thought we could have universal bulk-billing; they thought it was an erosion of universal healthcare,” said Dr Nick Coatsworth, the former deputy medical officer who now heads the Australian Patient Association.
“In hindsight, it appears that was not the case at all. Having done nothing, there was no co-payment and no increase in the GP rebates, we now have people paying $100 to see a GP, not $7.”
