More than 1000 marched in Sydney on 15 February to oppose any attack on Medicare and the public health system. The crowd gathered at Town Hall steps where a sea of union flags were visible.

Speakers outlined the horrors of health care before Medicare, and foreshadowed those to come if proposals to introduce a Medicare co-payment and further privatise the public health system are implemented.

Dr Con Costa from the Doctors Reform Society recounted that in the 20th century the most common reason for imprisonment in South Australia before Medicare was introduced was for non-payment of fines related to unpaid medical bills. Brett Holmes from the NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association described what a privatised heath system would look like – overcrowded emergency rooms, a worsening of chronic health conditions overall in the community and more deaths due to non-treatment amongst the poor.

As hundreds of placards in the crowd attested, Abbott's lies that Australia can’t afford a public health system are an ideological smokescreen for his plans to funnel billions more into the coffers of private health insurance companies.

The reality of Abbott's plans to line the pockets of the rich whilst dismantling a health care system funded by workers, fuelled a vibrant and angry march through the city, led by activists from the NSW Nurses and Midwives Association, the ASU, Unions NSW, the Greens and Socialist Alternative.

Chants of “No ifs, no buts, no Medicare cuts”, rang out as passing motorists blasted their horns in support and bus drivers took placards from protestors, displaying them on their windscreens as they cheered on marchers.