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Issue No. 200 | 24 October 2003 |
The Hard Yards
Interview: No Ifs, No Butts Unions: National Focus Industrial: Fools Gold Bad Boss: Bones of Contention History: The Gong Show Politics: The Hawke Legacy International: Sick Nation Economics: Closed Minds Review: Mixing Pop and Politics Poetry: One Size Fits All
Workers Rally For �Joel�s Law� It�s Official: Courts Weak on Safety Cole Insider Highlights "Agenda" "Racism" as Pacific Islanders Rorted Academics Appeal to International Umpire Poll Points to Hospital Overload Aussie Icon Set To Head Overseas AWU Rejects Bid to Fleece Shearers People�s Bank to Hear From People Unions Put Students in Picture Memo ALP Members: Think About Unions
Postcard The Soapbox Media The Locker Room Culture Politics Postcard
Advance Australia Where? God Save Us All US Seeking Aussie Info Call The Doctor Bring Back Gough Bring Back Social Democracy Look East, Look West
Labor Council of NSW |
News Poll Points to Hospital Overload
The results, contradicting claims by former Health Minister Kaye Paterson, come in a national poll of 1200 people, aged 18 year and over, published this week. Nine percent of respondents said they would be "most likely" to attend public hospitals if their local GPs increased consultation fees or stopped bulk billing. Another 21 percent said, wherever possible, they would put off going to the doctor. The polling comes amidst claim and counter claim over escalating attendances at public hospital A&E departments. State Governments argued in their case for greater public hospital funding that falling bulk billing rates had seen thousands of extra people attending public hospitals where consultations are free. The Howard Government argued that cost does not influence the number of people seeking first-port-of-call treatment at hospitals. Health Service Union secretary, Craig Thomson, said the nine percent increase pin-pointed by the polling would "swamp already over-crowded emergency departments". Meanwhile, the ACTU says the importance of Medicare is best illustrated by the privately-driven system in the world's richest country, the USA. Latest figures show that 44 million American, 80 percent from working families, have no health cover at all. This figure was up 2.4 million on the number in that situation in 2002, according to the US Census Bureau. Approximately, 15.2 percent of population was without any health cover for the duration of 2002, the Bureau said. America's AFL-CIO president, John J. Sweeney said the statistics represented a health care, economic and moral "crisis". "Since President Bush took office, the ranks of the uninsured have rised by more than 3.7 million, from 39.8 million in 2000 to 43.6 million in 2002," Sweeney said. ""All the gains the nation had made since 1998 in closing the health care gap and expanding coverage have been erased." Families USA executive director, Ron Pollack, said the problem would be worsened by tightening state budgets. Traditionally, he said, state programmes such Medicaid and Children's Health Insurance had cushioned some of the disadvantaged. "Now that the states are experiencing fiscal crises, they are hard-pressed to retain coverage in those public programmes," Pollack said.
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