DOCTORS REFORM SOCIETY

 

Media Release

 

14 August 2006

 

 

Credit card set to replace Medicare card

 

 

New changes which allow doctors to swipe your Medicare card along with your Credit card are being touted as a benefit to patients - no more lining up at the Medicare office.  In reality these moves disguise a much more sinister attack on Medicare and bulk billing said Dr Con Costa National Vice President of the DRS. Mr Abbott is seeking to transfer the cost of health care from Medicare to the individual sick and elderly and families said Dr Costa.

 

The new changes will simply make it easier for doctors NOT to bulk bill and also to increase their fees - said Dr Costa. The credit card is going to replace the Medicare card-, with the sick and the elderly going into more and more debt.

A mother visiting the doctor with 2 children could be up for more than $40 out of pocket, even before she pays for any medicines, (the difference between bulk billing and her doctor charging $45 per consult - $96 vs. $135). Then there would be the added cost of any pathology and/ or radiology services - none of which would be bulk billed by the specialist if her GP is not bulk billing.  Of this, one third would be a further immediate out of pocket cost.

 

(Up to now the big incentive for doctors to bulk bill has been that doctors did not want to wait to receive payment i.e. wait for the patient to go to the Medicare office, get the rebate and then send the cheque - together with the difference - back to the doctor.

Medicare bulk billing had the advantage of simplicity and direct payment.  These advantages are now being transferred to those doctors who do not bulk bill and who want to charge the patient directly i.e. above the Schedule fee.)

 

Heath Minister Abbott is not simply helping patients to avoid the Medicare office with the new swipe system - he is giving a bigger boost to those doctors who do not bulk bill, doctors thinking about stopping bulk billing and those doctors thinking about increasing their fees.  All of this is bad news for the sick and the chronically ill, mothers and the elderly - with health costs set to skyrocket.

 

As doctors continue to increase their fees the out of pocket cost will increase as the Medicare rebate remains relatively stable. it will not be long before the Credit card will make the bigger deduction while the Medicare deduction becomes smaller and smaller as a percentage of the overall cost - the Credit card replacing the Medicare card.  - Said Dr Costa.  The Medicare card and the value of bulk billing are being continuously eroded under Health Minister Abbott - in favour of private charging doctors and the private health system.