Labor leader Bill Shorten said he fundamentally disagrees with Prime Minister Scott Morrison about the financial burden of cancer treatment.
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Speaking with three time cancer survivor Jill Barnard and her husband Nev at the North West Cancer Centre on Tuesday, Mr Shorten reaffirmed his party's commitment to reforming healthcare in Australia.
"I have a fundamental disagreement with the current Prime Minister, he says that cancer treatment is free," Mr Shorten said.
"It's not free."
Mrs Barnard echoed Mr Shorten's comments and said she and her husband have spent tens of thousands of dollars of their own money during treatment.
Mrs Barnard is a teacher, and has cut back on her work while undergoing treatment.
She said when they factored in her inability to work full time, the necessary anti-nausea and pain medication and the travel for treatment at private hospitals on the mainland, the full cost of the disease was significant.
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"It's not because the health system doesn't look after us, it does. But if you need an operation, you want it now," Ms Barnard said.
"Cancer doesn't wait," Mr Shorten responded.
"We're better off trying to find resources to let you concentrate on the fight and not worry about the bills."
Labor's cancer plan will provide 120,000 free scans and 60,000 free consultations for Tasmanians.
Shadow health minister Catherine King said elective surgery waiting times are the worst in 20 years.
"Here in Tasmania 9,000 people are waiting for elective surgery. One in three Tasmanians don't get elective surgery in time," she said.
"That is a damning indictment on the six years of the Liberal Government... that people are waiting too long for elective health care procedures and in some cases people are indeed dying.
"People aren't just waiting quietly at home, they are in desperate pain."
When you are at stage 4 of liver cancer, your franking credit is not much use to you.
- Bill Shorten
Mr Shorten said Labor's franking credit policy will help fund healthcare reform, and people like the Barnards.
"When you are at stage 4 of liver cancer, your franking credit is not much use to you," he said.
"Not everyone likes [these reforms] but we need to find the resources to make sure we've got the world's best healthcare system."
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