PRIVATE HEALTH COVER UNDER LABOR ATTACK - Dr Dennis Jensen MP

Dr JENSEN (Tangney) (6:41 PM) —I rise to support my constituents of Tangney in the face of the latest attacks on private health insurance by the Rudd Labor government. Over 74 per cent of my electorate have private health insurance. The remaining percentage rely heavily on the public system. Both groups will suffer if Labor succeeds in decimating private health insurance membership. Insured Tangney residents who earn over $75,000 would have to pay more because of the cut to the private health insurance rebate. If they dropped out altogether, they would still have paid more due to an increased Medicare levy surcharge. Insured Tangney residents who earn under $75,000 would have to pay more because of increased premiums due to younger and healthier people dropping out. Uninsured Tangney voters would be waiting longer in the public hospital queues for essential treatment because of the further influx of people into a public health system already under extreme pressure.

In the early 1990s, Labor nearly crippled our health system because of ideological opposition to private health cover. This government is hurtling down the same destructive path, and again Australians rely on the coalition to save them from this unconscionable attack.