CV and mad panic behaviour

[Mav]

State governments can't do that AFAIK, Macca. There was a rumour running in anti-vaxxer circles that the Victorian Government would refuse hospital access to unvaccinated patients but it was soon pointed out that the State Governments had no role in this as the agreements b/w State and Federal Governments require hospitals to take medicare patients. AFAIK, the same agreement would stop State Governments requiring a co-payment.

Of course, the Federal Government could impose co-payments, but that's not going to happen. Slomo wants to get the States to do the dirty work and he's not going to wade into controversy. Federal Labor wouldn't be impressed either as they fought to prevent the Liberals imposing a co-payment as Labor feared that would enable the Liberals to gut the medicare system over time.

I would have thought there should have been a quota system which protected beds needed by other departments such as cancer and cardio wards. Then the triage policy could have been adjusted to prioritise the vaccinated when covid patients exceeded the number of beds available for them. But fairness would require such policy changes to be publicised beforehand to allow the unvaccinated to become vaccinated. It's too late to do that now.