MedicarePlus fails the strugglers

 General practitioners charge an average of $13.64 now if they don't bulk-bill. MedicarePlus offers them $5. Why would they change? GPs who bulk-bill card holders, kids and struggling non-card holders will be offered $5 extra but just for the card holders and kids.

 GPs, specialists, radiologists, and pathologists are now encouraged to charge or increase their co-payment to the strugglers and will be less concerned now about big co-payments because there is a saggy safety net out there.

 The strugglers get nothing except the opportunity to hope they eventually pay out more than $500 in a year. What do they do while waiting to hit that amount? What if they don't? How many visits will they avoid because of the cost?

 But doctors are happy. This will be a licence to print money without the guilt, especially for high charging radiologists and specialists.

MedicarePlus is a safety net for a weakened Medicare which has now been turned into a safety net.