The federal government is considering the introduction of a fee to visit a GP, undermining the Medicare bulk billing system which makes it possible to go to the doctor without paying upfront. Any attack on Medicare will end up targeting people who can least afford to pay: the poor, working class, students, the unemployed, single parents and pensioners.

Many people from these groups already struggle to access the medical care they require. Even the Australian Medical Association opposes this “GP tax”. It points out that socially disadvantaged people already use primary health care less than they need, and are more likely to end up in emergency care as a result.

The attack has been proposed by the health industry bosses’ think tank, the Australian Centre for Health Research – which also proposes abolishing the federal department of health and ageing and privatising much of the health care system. The government’s Commission of Audit will reportedly make its recommendations on the proposal in March.

Health minister Peter Dutton has already sought to justify the fee, stating that “it's hard to understand where we are going to find money to pay for these services”.

Workers need to reject this crap. The measure would cut Medicare outlays by $750 million over four years. Yet the government gifts more than $4 billion in tax breaks and subsidies to the mining industry every year! According to the Treasury, tax concessions on superannuation will cost the government some $45 billion in 2014/15 – around half of that forgone revenue is paid out to the richest 20 percent of income earners.

If the government is short of money it should stop giving handouts to the ultra wealthy, rather than attack the poor.