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"Howard clueless in health economics"
The
Australian JOHN Howard is clueless in health economics. Privatising health services increases costs – look at the US and what's been happening in Australia during the last eight years. The federal Government is throwing $5 billion at a political problem caused by the demise of bulk-billing. Interestingly, their solution, unlike the ALP's, offers no encouragement to bulk-bill. Most GPs now have private billing systems in place and won't drop fees to recommence bulk-billing. This whole mess could have been avoided, and at a fraction of the cost, by raising rebates a few years ago. Meanwhile, the AMA plugs the line that GPs are engaged in compassionate discounting when they charge less than $50 a visit. How noble of my colleagues. Even at the current $25 rebate, one can bulk-bill every patient, practise responsible medicine and, after expenses but before tax, earn about $100,000 a year. Most full-time GPs can comfortably see 150 patients a week – that's one every 15 minutes for 37.5 hours a week. This means that every dollar the Medicare rebate is increased is a straight $150 per week pay rise. The AMA argues that to just cover costs GPs require about an extra $30 per consultation. That's a pay rise of over $200,000 a year. The Government happily plays along with this deception because it conveniently dovetails with the argument that near-universal bulk-billing is too expensive for the public purse to sustain. John Howard has demonstrated that it costs more to destroy Medicare than sustain it.
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