Australian Medical Association The announcement of the Hon Karen Andrews MP as Minister for Home Affairs offers an opportunity to adopt a new approach on refugee and asylum seeker health issues. “All asylum seekers and refugees, irrespective of their citizenship or visa status, should have universal access to basic health care,” AMA President Dr Omar Khorshid said. “The extraordinary cost to the Australian taxpayer of detaining asylum seekers and refugees, while also compounding harms caused by inadequate access to mental health care services, does not make good economic or policy sense and is leading to worsening health outcomes,” he said.