Yes yes, the LNP froze the Medicare rebates for years, pushing GPs away from being able to bulk bill all their patients, but many still chose to bulk bill, or offered bulk billing to kids and concession card holders. Others moved to private billing entirely, with some offering a slightly lower upfront cost if you’re a cardholder, but not all.
Absolutely given they froze indexation in 2013.
The Liberals predictably extended it. But make no mistake where it started.
Those 50 clinics don't make up for the 500 that stopped bulk billing in the last 12 months.
The offset is means tested, fucking over the working poor.
— Wobbly (@Ozwobbly) January 15, 2024
In all the cases where the GP is choosing to bulk bill or take a lower upfront payment they are effectively having to absorb that cost into the practice and have to covered by full fee paying patients.
It's woefully insufficient and over 500 clinics have dropped Bulk Billing in the last year.
In Tasmania less than 1% of clinics bulk bill and it's less tham 10% in WA.
I will also note it was a Labor government which froze the indexation on bulk billing leading to this crisis. pic.twitter.com/Acm4mxv3AU
— Wobbly (@Ozwobbly) January 15, 2024
But the changed to have a different bulk billing incentive for those that have a concession card and those that don’t has certainly stopped some bulk billing non-eligible patients, as they would then be worth $13 less per consultation, and where is the sense of obligation to bulk bill regular patients if they are worth less on the books than those with concessions and kids?
The RACGPs recommends a level B consult fee of just over $100. So, when they bulk-bill a patient, they are accepting a lower payment than if they charged them privately. If they private bill though, the patient will only get the regular rebate back, and that $20 is lost to the empty promises.
So, when Labor defend the stage three tax cuts with the bulk billing incentives and the chance they make a difference to people’s ability to access the medical care they need, I laugh and cry.
If you’re on $45k, you’re unlikely to have a health care card (you might if you have a family member with a disability) so your 43c a week isn’t exactly going to cover the $90 upfront my GP charges, or the $70 with concession. You might be able to buy some of that “summer sports gear” for a certain upcoming long weekend, but you won’t be able to cover the “$30” meds that went up to $31.60 on Jan 1.
Hah @TheRejectShop"summer sports supporter gear" not any particular colonial holiday pic.twitter.com/0L1HlTjNc3
— 💜 phonakins 🇵🇸🍉 (@phonakins) January 7, 2024
So, while the LNP starved Medicare, by creating a three-tier system, Labor are killing the last of the will for universal bulk-billing. So every time they tout the tripled bulk billing incentive, remember that it only applies to kids under 16, concession card holders and some eligible Indigenous Australians, and so leaves out the precious middle Australia that I thought they were trying to win over? No?
Who even is the Labor target market these days?