Medicare data reveals bulk-billing rates have flatlined

ABC NEWS (Australia)

New data quietly published online shows bulk-billing rates have stagnated since last year. The opposition says it shows too many people can't afford to see their doctor, but health experts say government incentives haven't been given enough time to work.

Transcript

00:00The bulk billing rate is essentially the number of GPs who are bulk billing their patients

00:07really.

00:08It's when you see your doctor for free, it's covered entirely by Medicare.

00:12And the rate has stayed essentially, it's stagnated, stayed the same since this time

00:16last year at 77.6%.

00:18Now there's also some other interesting data that's been quietly published today, or rather

00:24last night, showing that for the first time ever the average out of pocket cost per patient

00:30has gone up above $50.

00:32Now the opposition say that this is potentially having a pretty negative impact around the

00:36country.

00:37They say that it speaks to the fact that seeing a GP is too expensive and that not enough

00:41people are able to do it, and that that's eventually landing them in hospital rather

00:45than being able to see somebody before they get even more sick.

00:48And the other, you know, aside from the human cost, the economic cost of people going to

00:53hospital rather than being seen earlier in their illness is quite expensive.

00:57Now the Federal Government has been trying to manage this, they've actually increased

01:02the bulk billing incentive for GPs.

01:04So previously that only applied when you were seeing somebody who was a concession card holder

01:09or a young person, but during the election campaign they actually broadened that out to

01:13be any patient.

01:15But those changes only came into effect just at the start of this month, they've been in

01:19for less than a month, and so these aren't actually captured in this data.

01:23Right.

01:24So we're not seeing yet whether those incentives will make a difference.

01:27But what are health experts making of these figures out today?

01:31Essentially, wait and see.

01:33That's kind of the message that we're getting from people, including health economist Stephen

01:36Duckett, who said this is really too soon to say if what the government is doing has

01:41actually worked.

01:43And he's expecting to see probably more results over the next six months.

01:46He says that's certainly what the government's going to be hoping to see.

01:49We've heard from the head of the Australian Medical Association as well.

01:52They've said that this also, again, needs more time to work.

01:56It's hard to say yet whether it will or it won't.

01:58But for the AMA's part, they're also calling for a broader overhaul of Medicare.

02:03They're saying that it's not quite fit for purpose anymore because we've got an aging

02:06population.

02:06And of course, as you get older, you have a few more problems, definitely a few more

02:11health problems, and that there need to be more specific Medicare rebate items to deal

02:16with particular appointments for elderly people and those with chronic health conditions.

02:19So they're calling for a much broader overhaul of that system.

02:22But they're saying wait and see to find out whether what the government's doing has worked.

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