Australian Democrats and Veterans' Health

15 Sep 2004   

AMA (Australian Medical Association) President, Dr Bill Glasson, today welcomed the Australian Democrats’ ongoing commitment to ‘keep the bastards honest’ on the health of Australia’s war veterans by pledging to keep the gold standard in the veterans’ Gold Card.

The Gold Card provides veterans with access to free private healthcare under the Local Medical Officer (LMO) scheme for GP visits, and the Repatriation Private Patient Scheme (RPPS) for specialist treatment.

Dr Glasson said recent surveys of doctors showed that the Gold Card was starting to look like lead for our veterans, but recent funding increases by the Government had restored some of the sparkle.

“While the Democrats policy is light on detail, their promise to maintain guard duty on veterans’ health issues in the Senate is encouraging,” Dr Glasson said.

“The health of our veterans is raised regularly by the Democrats in the Senate and was at the heart of recent discussions I had with Senator Bartlett.

“The plight of veterans’ healthcare was also highlighted as a point of debate during the recent RSL National Congress.

“The plight was eased with the Government’s recent $98 million funding pledge for the LMO Scheme, but more can be done as our veterans get older and their health problems become more serious and complex.”

Dr Glasson said veterans’ health was a notable absence from Labor’s recent Veterans policy announcement.

“I can only hope that Labor’s vocal concerns about vets’ health in the media are matched by an equally loud funding commitment before the election,” Dr Glasson said.