Prime Minister Scott Morrison has shot down the idea of stripping Medicare benefits from unvaccinated people who contract COVID-19.
“We live in a country where we’re not going to demonise people for making their own choices,” Mr Morrison told the Seven Network on Thursday.
“Of course we want people to get vaccinated but we’re not going to take that heavy-handed approach.”
The comments came after former New South Wales Premier Bob Carr tweeted that unvaccinated COVID-19 patients should have to pay for their own medical treatment, an announcement made this week by Singapore.
“Follow Singapore and legislate no medical or hospital expenses to be reimbursed to people who are not vaccinated without medical justification and then contract Covid,” Mr Carr tweeted on Tuesday.
“You ignored warnings and got the disease. You pay for your wilful stupidity, not the rest of us.”
From 8 December, COVID-19 patients who are "unvaccinated by choice" in Singapore will need to pay for the care they receive at hospitals and treatment facilities.
The measure was introduced as "unvaccinated persons make up a sizable majority of those who require intensive inpatient care, and disproportionately contribute to the strain on our healthcare resources,” Singapore's Ministry of Health said in a statement on Monday.
Mr Carr tweeted resounding support of Singapore’s approach, noting that for many “this virus will be a death sentence”.
“A pig-headed view that one has the perfect right to be unvaccinated without medical justification is a violation (potentially fatal) of the rights of others to life and health,” he wrote.
“This should be enforced as we enforce smoke-free work environments or no driving while drunk.”
Referring to Mr Carr’s comments, the Prime Minister said the government respects people’s freedom of choice when it comes to the vaccine.
“We don’t have a mandatory vaccine policy as a federal government ... We respect people’s choices,” Mr Morrison said.
“Of course we want people to get vaccinated and they have been getting vaccinated under these policies.”
Australia is on the verge of reaching 90 per cent first dose coverage in people over 16, with 82 per cent fully vaccinated.
