29 July 2019
Bruce Bolton
A death by one thousand cuts, for decades liberals have been trying to privatise the public Australian health system with small reform after small reform.
This agenda kicked into a new gear in 2014 as liberals cut health and education funding by $80 billion which is a very significant figure given Australia had a population of about 24 million people at the time.
Since 2014 there have been ongoing attempts to sabotage Australian health care with it being a key issue in elections.
The Financial Review recently reported that “The head of one of Australia’s biggest health insurers has called on the government to abolish Medicare and make private health insurance compulsory.”
The private sector is throwing its political weight around so it can force the population into private health care to boost its profits.
Australian Medicare basically covers all free and discounted health care in Australia, making it a bastion of social democratic reforms.
According to Australia’s HealthDirect website, Australian Medicare offers “free or subsidised treatment by health professionals such as doctors, specialists, optometrists, dentists and other allied health practitioners (in special circumstances only),” “free treatment and accommodation as a public (Medicare) patient in a public hospital,” and “75% of the Medicare Schedule fee for services and procedures if you are a private patient in a public or private hospital (not including hospital accommodation and items such as theatre fees and medicines).”
Every month there are further attempts to degrade social democratic reforms in First World countries to the bare minimum required to prevent revolution.
If people in the First World want to maintain a decent health care system and other social services they should support socialist revolution in the Third World, for cutting off imperialism’s source of superprofits will hasten the demise of capitalism globally and will lead to a reproletarianization of the First World working class, thus increasing their revolutionary potential. Only global socialist revolution can lead to a truly just and equitable society.
Sources
“State premiers demand emergency meeting with Abbott government over $80 billion health and education shortfall.” The Sydney Morning Herald. 19 May 2014.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/state-premiers-demand-emergency-meeting-with-abbott-government-over-80-billion-health-and-education-shortfall-20140518-38i01.html
“Scrap Medicare, mandate private health cover: NIB boss.” Financial Review. 23 July 2019.
https://www.afr.com/business/health/scrap-medicare-mandate-private-health-cover-nib-boss-20190722-p529iw
“What is Medicare.” HealthDirect.
https://www.healthdirect.gov.au/what-is-medicare
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