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Letters may be e-mailed to guardian@cpa.org.au.
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Letters to the editor:

Outrageous

What the Federal Government is intending to do to bail out the medical 
insurance industry once again with the connivance of the Labor State 
Governments is truly outrageous.

Howard is to back claims for medical negligence until the end of the year 
thereby relieving the insurance companies of any worries. At the same time 
insurance premiums paid by doctors are going to go up. Doctors will, in 
turn, pass the additional costs on to patients.

There is no suggestion that patients are going to be reimbursed by higher 
Medicare rebates.

It's becoming an all too familiar pattern. A private company goes bankrupt, 
the Government bails it out with taxpayers' money, the company puts up its 
price and this is handed down to the consumer and the buck stops there. 
Ansett is another example.

The Federal Government wants to ditch Medicare and has systematically 
refused to increase Medicare reimbursements to doctors. As a result, more 
doctors are refusing to bulk bill.

This latest dirty deal will put more pressure on Medicare and on doctors 
who have to pay the extra insurance premiums. Australia is getting ever 
closer to the American model in which the insurance companies virtually run 
the health system even to the point of deciding what treatment, if any, 
patients should receive.

There should have been a huge outcry from Labor Premiers but they seem to 
be bereft of principles and ideas. Are they really going to make a stand 
for Medicare or, as with Telstra, are they getting ready to do a deal on 
Medicare too?

Bruce Gillman
Sydney

A young friend of mine recently had an accident at work. He is under 19 
years of age and was working part-time in a supermarket store stacking 
shelves.

He was put to work on a machine to crush the empty boxes. It had no safety 
guard and only one button to push to operate. Towards the end of a long 
shift without a break his hand was nearly cut off.

The box-crushing machines are probably used in other supermarkets as well. 
Has Workcover banned them? If not why not? Or are the supermarkets being 
allowed to "self-regulate"?

It also transpired that these young kids who had been employed on a casual 
basis for a 20-hour week were told that their hours would be cut to 14 but 
that they were expected to do the same amount of work as for 20 hours.

This is the means by which the stores force casual workers to quit as they 
near adulthood and are entitled to full adult wages. Speed them up to such 
an extent that they just leave.

The cycle then repeats itself. The stores employ another younger person 
looking for a few extra dollars and the companies probably apply to the 
government for a wage subsidy.

They then claim to be good employers giving work to the young unemployed. 
The Government goes along with this fagade. But that's capitalism!

Wida Wake

Melbourne, Victoria

At a meeting organised by the Retired Union Members Association held 
today, Wednesday May 29,the following resolution was adopted.It speaks for 
itself.

"Recognising that the 2002 Federal Budget throws the burden on to the 
poorest sections of the community while assistance is handed out to 
companies whose profits are at record levels and wealthier sections of the 
community remain unaffected, this meeting of pensioner, disability and 
unemployed organisations strongly requests you to reject the Budget 
legislation in the Senate and not to engage in any trade-offs that make the 
poor worse off."

For the Retired Union Members Association

Vic Potticary, Honorary Secretary, RUMA