Annette King's statement that the 48,000 low income families who now aren't eligible for the community services card are only missing out on $30 or $45 a year shows her blatant ignorance of the huge savings it means for struggling families, National's Health spokesman Roger Sowry said today.

"Annette King should know that adults who pay full doctor's fees are paying an extra $15 dollars per visit, for children the subsidy for those on a community services card is $20 or $32.50.

"It only takes a handful of doctors' visits for each member of a non-qualifying low income family of four to amass $300 in doctor's fees. Conservative estimates would put the additional cost for the family at at least $245, but a family of five with a very sick child could be paying another $385 on top of that.

"This huge difference doesn't even include the savings on prescription costs. Community Service Card holders pay $3 for a prescription. Low income families on the same income as beneficiaries will pay $20 or more for the same prescription.

"For Annette King to be so dismissive about the large savings the card means for beneficiaries and low income families, the people this Government purports to support, is just bizarre.

"If people on community services cards are only saving the tiny amount on health services that she claims then why has this Government continued to keep the card?

"This Government has already identified that people earning lower incomes have the highest incidences of health problems. It is most unfair to then turn around and disadvantage those working on a low income by not allowing them to have a community services card when beneficiaries on the same income do," Mr Sowry said.

Ends

© Scoop Media

Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>