Doubts remain over parties’ Medicare pre-election pledges

ABC NEWS (Australia)

One of the regular bug-bears of life in Canberra is the difficulty finding a GP who bulk bills. Labor has made cheaper visits to the doctor a key plank of its pitch for a second term, with a Medicare funding boost a commitment quickly matched by the opposition. But there are doubts costs in the ACT could be reduced.

Transcript

00:00Using a cane may become an important part of Rowan Goyne's daily life.

00:11He has macular degeneration, which has so far taken 30% of the vision in his right eye.

00:17It's one of multiple chronic conditions he's managing, including with a monthly visit to

00:22the GP.

00:23So I spend a fair bit of time at the GP in a 10 minute appointment, which is only for

00:27one item technically, bringing them up to speed where I am with my relevant specialists.

00:33The regular appointments, alongside medications and treatments, all add up for someone who

00:39says he's limited in how much he can work.

00:42So I've delayed things sometimes, put some things off, scans and things like that, because

00:47I just couldn't afford them, just couldn't even catch them anything, just couldn't afford

00:52them at the time.

00:56A visit to the doctor is less common for Lauren James.

00:59As a healthy woman in her early 40s, it only tends to happen when she's sick.

01:04I think about the concept of check-ups or preventative medicine and maybe it's something

01:09I should do.

01:10I've never done it before.

01:12And now to me, the cost is something that is stopping me from doing that.

01:16When she first moved to Canberra from Sydney in 2020, Lauren initially found a bulk billing

01:22GP, but lately that's proven elusive.

01:26I could get in my car, probably in Sydney and drive somewhere to find somewhere to access

01:30these services.

01:32I'm not sure about that in Canberra, I'm continuing to do my research.

01:36Bulk billing rates in the ACT are lower now than before the pandemic, down from almost

01:42two thirds of GP visits in the last quarter of 2019 to barely more than half in the last

01:48three months of last year, consistently below the national rate.

01:53Today I announce that our government will expand the bulk billing incentive to cover

01:59all Australians.

02:04The Prime Minister has pledged to triple the bulk billing incentive for non-concession

02:09patients and provide an extra loading for practices that bulk bill all patients, with

02:14the target that 90% of visits would be bulk billed by 2030.

02:19There's a very healthy level of scepticism of GPs in Canberra about whether or not this

02:23would actually make any difference to the financial viability of general practice.

02:27The government says its changes would triple the number of practices that bulk bill all

02:31of their patients, including in the ACT.

02:35Figures from the Health Minister's office reveal the number of bulk billing practices

02:38here could increase from an estimated 8 to roughly 25.

02:44But as a percentage, it's still much lower than what's expected nationally.

02:49Dr Kerry Ost says ACT practices have higher expenses in areas like insurance and some

02:56staffing costs, and some doctors couldn't recover from being forced to bulk bill more

03:02often during the pandemic.

03:04What we found was that GPs were working longer hours to pay their mortgages and many of them

03:09actually left in the years following.

03:11Labor is already managing expectations about how effective its changes would be.

03:17The government cannot force a doctor to bulk bill.

03:20What we can do is ensure that the incentives are high enough for them to make that choice

03:25and that's what we're doing.

03:26So it remains to be seen what happens here.

03:29Are the cost structures going to change?

03:31Probably not.

03:32Is it going to mean that there's going to be a reduction?

03:35I don't hold out a lot of hope for that.

03:36A persistent expense some Canberrans can't afford to spare.

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