Medicare and Malcolm.It is Liberal ideology to oppose Medicare, so what does never,never,never really mean?

It is fair to ask whether Turnbull's solemn undertaking would be any more permanent if the opportunity to reverse it arose. So Shorten's so-called scare campaign - just the latest from both sides in this unedifying election - may indeed have some substance. The Libs may not be game to sell off Medicare, but that does not mean that they have to like it - or any other manifestation of publicly funded health policy.

It is easy enough to go back the last three years - Tony Abbott's promises of no cuts to health, education and the ABC, then the attempt to introduce a co-payment (read: charge to patients) for Medicare services, the slicing away of pathology and other areas, the reinstatement of what was supposed to be a temporary freeze on rebates, the so-called reviews of handing over the payment system and maybe other bits of human resources to free enterprise - Turnbull's record of preserving Medicare in all its pristine glory is hardly a convincing one.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/mungo-maccallum/28468