"In an ideal world, every Australian would have private health insurance. That would be the best, that would be the best outcome"
"Everybody knows you don't set up a Medicare privatisation taskforce unless you aim to privatise Medicare"
Malcolm Turnbull (June 17, 2016):
"Medicare will never ever be privatised. Medicare will never ever be sold. Medicare is a core government service," he told reporters while campaigning on the NSW north coast. "It will always be delivered by the government and every element of Medicare's activities will continue to be delivered by the government."
"Don't listen to what they say, look at what they do. The Liberals want to tear down Medicare, brick by brick."
Phillip Coorey (June 19, 2016):
"The federal government has dumped plans to outsource the back-office operations of Medicare in a bid to take some of the sting out of Labor's key election message."
Dennis Shanahan (June 19, 2016):
"Malcolm Turnbull has thrown any chance of even minor savings on administration costs for Medicare under a bus."
Andrew P. Street (June 20, 2016):
"According to Labor, the Coalition has been planning to gut and sell off Medicare, claiming this has been part of the plan for every Coalition government. And to be fair, the facts have seemed to suggest this is the case. After all, Liberal leader Malcolm Fraser abolished Medibank after it was introduced by the Labor Whitlam government, then it was resurrected by Labor's Bob Hawke and renamed Medicare, then John Howard started giving rebates for those using private health insurance while cutting the Medicare rebate for doctors - the same trick that the Turnbull government has done, and which the Australian Medical Association is campaigning against."
"If you want to protect Medicare, you vote Labor in the election ... don't believe Malcolm Turnbull's words, look at his actions. It is a matter of record that they intend if re-elected to freeze GP rebates till 2020. That will mean that bulk-billing will become a thing of the past for many Australians.
Mr Turnbull set up a privatisation task force and has commissioned the Productivity Commission to investigate options to privatise the delivery of human services by the federal government. Malcolm Turnbull has a plan to get rid of the bulk-billing incentive to pathology laboratories and diagnostic imaging services."
Dr Michael Gannon (June 22, 2016):
"There is absolutely no evidence at all that the Liberal Party has any desire to privatise Medicare. They've traditionally been a greater friend of private medicine but that's a completely different issue."