For Tasmania’s mother, Bec Haight, it will be cheaper for her and her family to fly to Melbourne than to be seen by a doctor in her hometown.
Key points:
- A Tasmanian doctor says GPs “would love to be able to bill all patients” but can’t afford to do so due to the government’s low discount
- Tasmania has one of the worst bulk billing rates in Australia, meaning many patients face out-of-pocket costs when they go to the doctor
- Bec Haight says it’s too expensive to take his family to the doctor if he can’t be billed in bulk.
Hobart’s mother of two has struggled to find an affordable doctor after her former doctor, who was charging in bulk, retired earlier this year.
“I’m a single mother with a disability pension and I have a sick child. It’s difficult,” she said.
“I don’t have $ 330 for my family to go see the doctor. I don’t have that kind of money out there.”
After trying to find another doctor who billed in bulk in Hobart, she said it was now cheaper for her to take her family to the mainland to see a mass-billed doctor, where she would also be eligible for telehealth at the future.
The cheapest flights to Melbourne return for her and her children, one and five years old, for less than $ 330.
“Honestly, going to Melbourne seems like the sensible option. It’s ridiculous, but I don’t see any other option,” he said.
“I don’t understand how things got to Australia.”
Bec Haight’s son (right) needs specialized health care. (Supplied by Bec Haight)
Both Mrs. Haight and her one-year-old son have complex medical conditions, meaning they require regular appointments.
“You should be able to receive basic medical care, and if not, there are some pretty major bugs in the system,” he said.
A growing number of GP clinics across the country have moved away from a massive billing payment system in favor of charging patients privately.
Tim Jackson, of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, said the mass billing model was no longer sustainable for many practices.
“We would like to be able to bill in bulk for all patients, but the fact is that the Medicare discount is at such a level now that GPs are finding it increasingly difficult to bill in bulk,” he said.
“The federal government has never really increased the Medicare discount on how much it costs to actually offer the service.
“It’s unsustainable for GPs to keep billing everyone,” he said.
“If GPs accept the massive billing rate for everyone, then it’s a difficult business model to move forward.”
Tasmanian GP John Saul of the Australian Medical Association said calls to increase the discount had been ignored.
“The government has really disappointed patients,” he said.
“Our patients are the ones who suffer. They are the ones who can no longer afford to pay the extra to see a doctor.
“We just can’t keep our doors open if we bill in bulk.
“Virtually no one in Australia will be able to bill in bulk, as we are headed.”
“Crisis time” for Medicare discount
Tasmania has one of the worst bulk billing rates in Australia, meaning many patients face out-of-pocket costs when they go to the doctor.
Dr. Jackson said many GPs were taking a mixed-billing approach, where some patients are billed in bulk, such as grant card holders and children, while others are charged a fee.
In lower socioeconomic areas and in towns outside large cities, he said there was greater pressure for mass turnover, and this forces some practices to consider whether it is viable to operate.
“Urban and rural areas are struggling, but will soon also be introduced into urban practices,” he said.
“We [Tasmanians] we tend to be older and lower socioeconomically, we have more chronic diseases, and we have poor health literacy, so for all these reasons, we really need people to have access to good general practice of primary health care. ” .
Dr. Jackson said it was a “crisis time” for the Medicare discount to increase significantly, which independent health policy analyst Martyn Goddard said could be free time.
“It will take many years and a lot of political will and a lot of money to get back to where we were 20 or 30 years ago,” he said.
“A confluence of bad policy decisions is effectively blocking a significant proportion of the population outside of healthcare.
“We have a bigger, sicker and poorer population in Tasmania, we need more health care, but we have access to less.”
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