‘You beauty’: Veterans cry and celebrate as Labor scraps controversial $5000 health cap

Veteran and Tasmanian Senator, Jacqui Lambie , has celebrated Labor’s decision to scrap the $5,000 cap it was going to place on allied health services for ex-servicemen and women from next year.

“The bloody cap has been scrapped,” she told reporters in Parliament on Thursday. “You beauty, and we are backing it up so they never ever try it again.”

WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Government scraps veteran healthcare cap after backlash

Veterans Minister, Matt Keogh , released a statement confirming the plan had been taken “off the table”.

“We have been consulting on this measure, and we have heard from veterans there are concerns about this approach,” Keogh said.

“We have been listening carefully and today, the Government is taking the proposed $5,000 threshold off the table.

“We will not change our commitment to improving access to allied health care through the fee increase to allied health providers.”

Phil Thompson, who is the Coalition’s Member for Herbert and a veteran of the Afghanistan War, was reduced to tears at the news.

“I know what happens in that dark place because I’ve lived it,” Thompson said.

“Sorry, this is personal for me, because it’s my family. It’s my people.”

Under the existing scheme for veterans’ allied health services, which will now remain in place, they receive 12 appointments before they have to visit a General Practitioner (GP) to get access to more.

The Albanese Government proposed its $5,000 cap as a new threshold, with department figures showing only 10 per cent of veterans would go over that limit.

The proposal would have imposed the “limit” on services such as physiotherapy, psychology, occupational therapy, podiatry and dentistry, with veterans able to access more funding if they “demonstrated clinical need”.

The policy would have saved the Federal Government roughly $750 million over three years