[LINK] Labor pledges to kill off Access Card

[Marghanita da Cruz]

Bernard Robertson-Dunn wrote:
> <brd>
> Labor doesn't seem to have said what it would do instead of the Access Card.
> 
> One of the problems it was supposed to have addressed was that the existing Medicare card system needs replacing. It's old technology and 
> there are too many fraudulent cards out there.
> 
> Maybe they will just replace the Medicare Card with a smart card. That doesn't need legislation, so they can just get on with it.
> </brd>

Not to mention that Medicare was one of Federal Labor's greatest achievements.

However, the medicare card itself now seems irrelevant - bulk billing (except 
perhaps in the proposed NSW GP clinics) seems to have virtually disappeared and 
this was its original purpose.

There is also the private health insurance system to now be integrated.

And also the integration of medical records. did this make it to link?
Ellison unlocks Medicare databases - MEDICARE patient and provider databases 
will be key sources of a healthcare identifier regime to support a shift to 
e-health programs.
<http://www.australianit.com.au/story/0,,22318001-5013040,00.html?from=public_rss>

Marghanita
> 
> Labor pledges to kill off Access Card
> Annabel Stafford
> August 29, 2007
> The Age
> http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/labor-pledges-to-kill-off-access-card/2007/08/28/1188067111116.html
> 
> The $1.1 billion Access Card could soon be dead, with the Labor Party confirming it would kill off the proposal if it won this year's election.
> 
> Coming after the Federal Government last week confirmed it would put off introducing legislation for the Access Card until after the election, Labor has confirmed a Rudd government would scrap the idea.
> 
> "As far as we're concerned, (the Access Card) is dead," Labor human services spokeswoman Tanya Plibersek said.
> 
> Voters worried about the card now had a clear choice between a Coalition government that would introduce the smartcard — which would replace up to 17 social services cards and be required by anyone wanting to access government payments — and one that would not, Ms Plibersek said.
> 
> She accused the Government of "doing everything it can to minimise the Access Card as an election issue … (ever since) it became obvious that it was not a popular proposal".
> 
> Labor's confirmation that it would scrap the card — and any similar proposals — came as a new report by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner suggested Australians may be warming to the idea.
> 
> The survey of 1503 people found 63 per cent were happy with the Government giving them a unique identifying number, compared with 53 per cent in 2004. And 80 per cent were happy for government departments to share information about them, up from 71 per cent in 2004.
> 
> One of the fears raised by privacy advocates and opposition parties was that under the Access Card proposal, information held across several government departments could be combined through the use of the unique identifying numbers, effectively creating a "super-database" of information.
> 
> Ms Plibersek denied the Privacy Commissioner's report suggested Australians were now more open to the Access Card. The survey did not ask specifically about the card, and, in any case, "when the Australia Card was first debated, the opposition to it was not big," she said. "It took a year of public debate to really shift attitudes on the Australia Card, but as people learnt more about it, their concerns were heightened."
> 
> Labor has argued that the way the Access Card is designed, it would turn into a de facto identity card much like the failed Australia Card.
> 
> Ms Plibersek said Labor was not against the use of smartcard technology to deliver some government services. But a single card required by everyone who wanted to access services — and supported by a database holding information about all card holders — was simply an ID card by another name, she said.
> 
> Under a Labor government, there would be "no super-database that contains all the information about a person and no effective ID card that you have to carry all the time," she said.
> 
> Ms Plibersek also questioned Government estimates that the Access Card could save up to $3 billion over 10 years by cutting down on fraud, saying such claims were overblown.
> 
> "The Government has made very favourable assumptions about what (the card) would cost and what it would save (in prevented fraud)," she said. "Even without the objection to privacy implications, the card was going to cost a lot of money for a very questionable benefit."
> 


-- 
Marghanita da Cruz
http://www.ramin.com.au
Phone: (+61)0414 869202