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Australia Drops Plan to Require Co-Pays to See a Doctor

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By Matt Siegel

SYDNEY -- Prime Minister Tony Abbott on Tuesday abandoned a plan to radically reshape Australia's universal health-care system by charging patients a fee to see their doctor, a major back flip for his struggling conservative government.

The A$7 ($6) co-payment, which had been included in an unpopular May budget, was heavily criticized by the opposition and many in the healthcare sphere as a sign that Australia was moving toward a U.S. health-care model. The policy reversal is the latest in a string for Abbott, whose Liberal-National coalition government has hit record low approval ratings.

Instead the government will cut the rebate it pays to doctors, he said, encouraging them to charge adults a A$5 fee at their discretion while children, the elderly and those on state allowances would be exempt. The government said that the changes would save A$3.5 billion over four years -- A$100 million less than originally proposed in the budget.

More Problems

Abbott is nearing the end of his first full year in office hobbled by missteps and a souring economy. Faced with a collapse in prices for commodities, produced by Australia, and an unruly upper house Senate that has held Abbott's first budget hostage since May, voters have abandoned his conservative government more quickly than any other in three decades.

Australia, by far the world's biggest exporter of iron ore and coal, has been battered by a worldwide fall in commodity prices. Iron prices have plunged 44 percent so far this year to under $76 a ton. Abbott warned about ballooning deficits when he released a budget packed with deregulation moves, new levies and spending cuts, but the public has never accepted his plan.

Last week Education Minister Christopher Pyne shelved for the year the government's plan to deregulate university fees after failing to garner enough votes to push it through parliament.

On Sunday, Abbott succumbed to pressure and radically pared back his signature landmark paid parental leave scheme, which had upset big business and many in his own party.

 

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