Rights leader urges Australia to reverse Moeller decision
November 6th, 2008From The Australian and the Qatar Gulf Times:
A high-ranking UN disability rights leader has called on Australia to reverse its decision to refuse Dr. Bernhard Moeller’s application for permanent residence.
“It’s outrageous a family is denied immigration because of a disability in their family,” said Ron McCallum, a member of the UN select committee that oversees the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. McCallum, who is blind, is a former University of Sydney dean of law.
“It’s out of step with the spirit of the international convention we’ve just signed,” he said. “We signed this convention to give disabled people the same rights as the rest of the community.” Australia ratified the convention in July, one of the first Western nations to do so.
The Australian Immigration Department denied Moeller’s application because his son has Down syndrome, saying the potential cost to taxpayers of caring for 13-year-old Lukas would be too great.
See also: Health dashes migrant hopes — Melbourne Herald Sun
Applications by almost 3,000 disabled or ill people wanting to migrate to or stay in Australia were rejected in the past two years because officials considered their health costs too high.
Among the conditions cited were HIV, Down syndrome, various cancers, and physical and mental disabilities.
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November 6th, 2008 at 4:38 pm
Hmmm, sounds like a strike against Universal Health Care…
Australia’s universal health care system is relatively new (introduced in 1983, which built on the 1974 Medibank program). As with all socialized health care systems, there is a mixture of public versus private care (approximately 30% of Australians also retain private health insurance). As a result, it’s reported that the private patients receive better care than their medicare counterparts. The salary caps and artificial increase in demand for care that typically occur in a national health care system are resulting in predictable physician shortages partly because Australia also regulates how many doctors are there and how many can go to medical school. The health care system is estimated to make up 43% of Australia’s budget.
The whole situation is fraught with irony. This Doctor came to Australia because of the Doctor shortages there-doctor shortages caused by the health care system. The Health care system that is suppose to reduce costs but has instead increased non-monetary costs to the consumer by causing the doctor shortage and now “rejects” this needed Doctor because his son’s health care would result in high costs to the health care system?…..Does not sound Universal or Healthy in the least.