A federal government call to limit breast screening to people on Medicare has been labelled racist by Queensland's health minister.
Federal Minister Greg Hunt sparked the furore last week when he wrote to state health ministers asking them to crack down on non-Medicare card holders accessing the free service.
Queensland's minister Steven Miles has accused Mr Hunt of using an important women's health issue as a political tool.
"This decision just flies in the face of all that investment and all of that effort for the sake of a few measly dollars and a racist dog-whistle," Mr Miles told the ABC.
"Ultimately, it could be more expensive to implement these changes than it would cost to deliver the screens to the women who want them."
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Mr Hunt's office defended the call, saying the service should only be available to Australians.
"The minister raised these concerns with the states and territories after reports from NSW that the system was allegedly being rorted by people coming from overseas and using these services," a spokeswoman told the ABC.
"Most Australians would be shocked that the Queensland health minister would condone the exploitation of this system by overseas tourism operators, from any country, who are reportedly promoting these services as a fringe benefit to Australian trips, regardless of medical need."
Women do not need a GP's referral when accessing the free breast screening service through its mobile vans, meaning theoretically a women from overseas visiting Australia could access the service.
No data is collected on the nationality of the women using the service, with only anecdotal reports of tourists visiting the screening vans.
