MALCOLM Turnbull will go to the July election at war with the medical profession as pathologists, imaging clinics, dentists and doctors all campaign against his budget cuts.

Pathology clinics have already become campaign headquarters against the government as the industry fights the end of a bulk billing incentive that could see a blood test cost $20 from July 1.

Nearly 500,000 patients have so far signed a petition against the cuts and the industry today (Thurs) releases a report which shows how it saved the government $2.4 billion by providing free tests last year.

The Ernst and Young report shows Australian pathology costs $381m less than the USA, and $45m less than Canada.

“Our campaign will not only go ahead, we will be doing everything we can to make the government see that this is the wrong approach, that will continue election or no election,” Pathology Australia president Dr Nick Musgrave said.

“Should the minister not realise this is a mistake it will be a major issue during the election campaign,” he says.

Pathologists see more than two million patients a month which means they will have the ear of two in every ten voters during the lengthy eight week election campaign.

Radiologists are also using their clinics to fight Medicare rebate cuts.

They have produced an analysis that shows cancer patients face gap payments for scans of up to $800 a year when Medicare rebates are slashed from July.

Minister for Health Sussan Ley said she would continue to work constructively with health groups, but was “not afraid” to take the hard decisions for the health of Australians.

“Whenever I speak to health professionals on the ground, I get this amazing contrast between their passion for efficient reform of the health system and the ‘not in my backyard’-style scare campaigns run by certain lobby groups claiming to represent their interests,” she said.

“The recent pathology campaign is a classic case of a lobby group playing on a patient’s deepest fears to protect profits and it’s disgraceful how Labor would back these multinational companies charging patients more for vital tests.

“But we will continue talk to Australians about the fact that every inefficient dollar spent on an increasingly automated test, is a dollar we can’t spend on other frontline preventative measures like public dental vans for children for example.”

Dentists are fighting cuts to the child dental scheme that will see three million kids lose access to $1,000 worth of government funded dental care from their family dentist.

Instead, they will be thrust onto the public dental care system where they will queue for up to three years to get treated.

The Oral Health Alliance has calculated the cuts mean people will get one dental treatment every 17 years, or else receive $40 per year for their care.

More than 15,000 people have already signed a dental petition and dental clinic around the country are being supplied with campaign material to fight the cuts.

“While the Government sells its recent announcement for a Child and Adult Public Dental Scheme (caPDS) as the largest ever Commonwealth investment, it is nothing of the sort. The caPDS, which includes the axing of the Child Dental Benefits Scheme (CDBS), represents a reduction in Government funding for the oral health care needs of Australian children and the 5 million adults it claims to be directed towards,” Robert Boyd Boland the CEO of the Australian Dental Association.

The Australian Medical Association is also campaigning against cuts that have frozen the Medicare rebate for seeing a GP at $37 for four years.

There is also a four year freeze on Medicare rebates for specialists designed to save $1.2 billion.

The cuts are already hitting patients with more than one in seven health fund members who use their cover paying a medical gap last year up from almost one in ten at the same time last year.

A Sydney University analysis has estimated the Medicare rebate freeze will cost the average full time GP $9600 a year from July rising to $29,500 by 2017-18.

Doctors will need to charge patients an extra $2.74 to cover costs from this year rising to $8 per visit by 2017-18, the analysis showed.

AMA vice president Dr Steve Parnis says while the AMA is never partisan it will be raising awareness of the Medicare freeze as part of the greater picture of a health system worth preserving.