Clarification of Radio Interview – ABC AM

The ABC AM program this morning falsely asserted that the Government is considering a co-payment (an upfront charge to see a doctor).

In an interview on Radio 2UE this morning what I said was: “Now what we’ve got to do, is we’ve got to encourage these people who have the ability to pay to start making a contribution and one of the ways in which we want to encourage them to do that is to take out private health insurance.”

I also said: “But for those that can afford to make a contribution they should be making a contribution through private health insurance. And we’ve got to make the private health insurance product better by alleviating costs.”

It is Government policy to encourage people to take out private health insurance which covers hospital charges.

The Government is not considering an upfront co-payment for doctors’ charges.

The suggestion to the contrary made by the ABC’s AM program is baseless.

CANBERRA

21 May 1998

Contact:

Niki Savva

02 6277 7340