Prime minister accuses Bill Shorten of perpetrating a ‘disgraceful lie’ about Medicare as AMA president warns doctors are at breaking point

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

Malcolm Turnbull has been forced to guarantee patients will not pay more as a result of the Medicare rebate freeze, but has later admitted he cannot control what doctors can charge.

On Friday, the Australian Medical Association (AMA) again warned doctors were at “breaking point” and might start charging patients $15 directly.

Medicare continued to dominate the final days of the election and Labor campaigners were handing out mock Medicare cards to commuters.



In an interview on Sunrise, the prime minister accused Bill Shorten of perpetrating a “disgraceful lie” about Medicare.



Turnbull was asked if he could guarantee patients would not pay more to see the doctor because of the Medicare freeze.



“Sam, absolutely, and bulk billing is at its all-time high,” he said.



Calla Wahlquist (@callapilla) Labor/ACTU volunteers handing out fake Medicare cards at Flinders St Station. @heldavidson @murpharoo #ausvotes pic.twitter.com/1JD8Qi8qxC

However in a later interview, Turnbull was asked how he could guarantee that costs for patients would not increase: “It’s out of your control isn’t it?”

Turnbull said: “Well, the doctors are free to charge patients as they wish ... but they are free now and the fact of the matter is that bulk billing has never been higher.”

The AMA president, Michael Gannon, warned that the continuing rebate freeze could force doctors to start charging.



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“That is one of the things we are concerned about with the freeze on GP rebates, is that the GPs tell us they are at breaking point and their ability to continue to take the hit, the ability to continue to provide a quality service at the level of the patient rebate is nearly over,” Gannon said.



“If they do make the decision that it’s time to start billing patients, there could be amounts like $15 a patient.



“That’s what we are concerned about. We know that there are people, if they are asked to pay $15 to pay the doctor, they will defer important care, leading to them getting sicker and sicker.”



Gannon said that while he had not “heard a whisper” about the Coalition intending to privatise Medicare, Labor had stronger policies to maintain bulk billing as well as pathology and radiology services.



The Labor government froze rebates in 2013 as a temporary measure. At the time, it was opposed by the AMA and the Coalition, but the Abbott government extended the freeze after it came to office.



Turnbull said that if the freeze was restored, it would increase payments to GPs by just under 60 cents.



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“So the proposition that in the return of indexation, or the failure to return indexation, will result in a collapse in bulk billing is simply not true and it is not born out by the evidence,” Turnbull said.



“The fact is Labor set up the freeze in 2013. We’ve continued it simply because we want to be able to spend more money, more of our health dollars in other areas such as bringing life-saving drugs on to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.”

Turnbull clarified in a news conference later that if patients were charged, it would not be because of the rebate freeze.

“If indexation were restored today, doctors would receive less than 60 cents additional,” he said.

“So if a doctor chooses to charge his or her patients $15 more or $10 more or $20 more, that’s not because indexation does not resume, it’s because they want to charge $15 or $20 more. The freeze on indexation means that doctors as of today, 1 July, do not get an extra 60 cents.”

Shorten characterised the election choice as “Malcolm or Medicare: you can’t have both”. He denied Labor’s Medicare campaign was a scare tactic.



“The fact of the matter is that he is freezing the GP rebate,” Shorten said. “No less a person than the new president of the AMA has said in response to the long freezes of the GP rebate, he’s said not only are they unsustainable, he said GPs are at breaking point.”