Bulk billing: Health Minister Sussan Ley moves to clarify suggestions of multi-tiered GP co-payment

Updated

Federal Health Minister Sussan Ley has moved to clarify earlier suggestions she wants a new multi-tiered co-payment system for doctor visits.

The Minister is in fresh consultations with the health sector about an additional fee for GP visits.

A majority in the Senate and unhappy medical groups have thwarted previous attempts to get the budget measure through Parliament.

This morning Ms Ley told ABC Radio she wanted to continue with a few more weeks of consultations about the best way forward.

"My intention is that we all agree on a methodology that says if you can't afford to pay anything, you can continue to be bulk-billed," she said.

"It is there to protect the vulnerable.

"If you can pay a little bit more, then we will ask you to do that, and if you are in a higher income bracket, again, you might have to pay something extra again."

That sparked concern from some medical groups including the Australian Medical Association (AMA).

"I think that's the first time I've heard anything put into those words," AMA president Brian Owler said.

"I can only surmise that the Minister was talking about the ability for people to make a contribution based on their incomes and their personal situation.

"Actually trying to formalise that, I think, would be very difficult and that's not something we've discussed with the Minister."

Ms Ley has since sought to explain her comment.

"I'm reflecting what happens already in general practice," she said.

She said under the current system, patients who could not afford to pay do not have to, but many GPs do charge a fee to higher income earners.

"If you can pay a bit more then your gap to the general practitioner might be $10 or $15 and another category of patient may pay still more again."

No guarantee savings will go to medical research fund

Ms Ley also said she would not guarantee savings from the Government's new bulk billing plan would go towards the Medical Research Future Fund.

Under the Government's budget plan, bulk-billed patients would be charged $7 to see a doctor with proceeds put into a new medical research fund.

But in December the policy was unable to pass through the Senate and was dumped in favour of a $5 payment charged at a doctor's discretion.

The medical research fund was established on January 1 with a $1 billion deposit from within the health portfolio.

That same month, and within weeks of becoming health minister, Ms Ley then scrapped key parts of the new plan, stating she wanted to consult doctors.

She has now said she cannot guarantee the revenue from the proposal will go into the fund.

"I'm not going to guarantee something that relates to a consultation that I haven't completed... that would be duplicitous of me," she said.

"The medical research future fund has money coming into it now and it's not dependent on one particular policy."

Before key parts of the policy were dumped, Coalition MPs complained to the ABC that it was hard to convince voters they needed to be charged more for going to the doctor when the money was going into a future fund rather than back into the general health budget.

Medical research fund: key points The Medical Research Future Fund will support medical research over the coming decades

$1 billion in uncommitted funds from the existing Health and Hospitals Fund was transferred into the MRFF at its inception on January 1, 2015

The Government expects the fund to grow to $20 billion by 2020

The fund is expected to make its first distribution of $20 million in 2015-16

By 2022-23, the fund is projected to distribute about $1 billion a year into medical research

It will be funded by estimated savings from health reforms in the budget

Health Minister Sussan Ley says she cannot guarantee the proceeds of the Government's new bulk billing plan will go towards the fund Source: Federal budget overview, Research Australia Source: Federal budget overview, Research Australia

Asked whether she thought the medical community agreed with the proceeds of a copayment going towards the future fund, Ms Ley said: "When I ask doctors about the medical research future fund, they're supportive of it.

"And anybody who recognises the value that that research adds cannot possibly say that it's not something we should go along with."

The Health Minister said she "did not want to pick a fight with doctors" as she consulted on the Government's plans and added that there had been "no fight in any of the consultations that I've had so far".

Ms Ley said she was holding consultations about the plan in New South Wales on Tuesday and released a series of figures she said backed the Government's push to charge some patients more money.

"I am having a genuine consultation with the medical profession and there is broad recognition that if 76 per cent of all episodes of care in Australia today are bulk billed for non-concessional patients then clearly there is an issue about those who can afford to pay, not paying as much as they should," she said.

She added that New South Wales had the highest GP bulk billing rate in the nation, with nearly nine in 10 visits to doctors bulk billed, adding that the value of Medicare claims in the state had more than doubled in the past decade to more than $6 billion per year.

Ms Ley said that 10 years ago, the Medicare levy covered 67 per cent of the national cost of Medicare, but that had fallen to just 54 per cent over the past decade.

However she said the Government was not looking at raising the levy.

"If you just increase taxes you end up funding an inefficient system, by saying here's a revenue stream, let's just pay whatever it costs" she said.

Topics: health, medical-research, doctors-and-medical-professionals, government-and-politics, australia

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