DOCTORS have welcomed the federal government’s decision to ditch plans for a GP co-payment, but have warned that a four-year rebate freeze will still put pressure on general practice and potentially drive up costs.
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Health Minister Sussan Ley said yesterday that a $5 GP co-payment had been ‘‘taken off the table’’ as it did not have broad support.
Australian Medical Association Northern Tasmanian representative Glenn Richardson, who is a Launceston GP, said he was relieved by the announcement but disappointed that a controversial four-year freeze on all Medicare rebates remained.
‘‘The rebate now is at 49 per cent of what it was in 1983, and I don’t know where it will end up in four more years,’’ Dr Richardson said.
‘‘General practice costs go up by about 6 to 8 per cent a year, so GPs will have to look at our business models, and we can’t not pay for our staff, or our hydro bill, or dressings, bandages, or vaccines.’’
Launceston Medical Centre GP Jerome Muir Wilson said patients had been spared an immediate shock with the co-payment cut, but the rebate freeze would likely mean a more gradual build-up in costs over the next four years.
‘‘For our practice, I think for now it’s viable to continue bulk-billing aged pensioners and children, and that’s something we’ll have to look at moving forward, whether we can continue to offer that bulk-billing service for those at-risk patients,’’ he said.
Ms Ley said she would continue consulting on short, medium and long-term options to ensure she could ‘‘keep on supporting high-quality care and treatment as efficiently as possible’’.
She said this was necessary, with government expenditure on Medicare almost doubling over the past decade, despite the proportion of Medicare spending covered by the Medicare levy falling backwards.
