Thursday, 19 August 2004

Soaring medical costs hit the elderly

United Future leader, Peter Dunne, says the survey of doctors’ fees released today is graphic evidence of the increasing difficulties faced by the elderly in accessing medical care.

The Ministry of Health survey shows that for patients aged over 65, the average cost of a visit to the doctor was $43 in February and $48 in July.

“So just at the time when New Zealanders need increased healthcare, it is becoming more and more expensive for them to do so,” said Mr Dunne.

“And it’s not just doctors’ fees. For those who have medical insurance, they find the premiums going up the older they get and the more in need of healthcare than ever before.

“One solution to ease the burden could be a tax rebate to assist with the insurance premiums, coupled with a determined drive by the Primary Health Organisations to keep doctors’ fees down so that elderly New Zealanders can get the healthcare they have been paying taxes for all their lives,” said Mr Dunne.

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>>