community, GP co-payment, co-payment, indigenous health, Bunbury, Fiona Nash, Colin Holt, South West

THE federal assistant minister for health has used a tour of the South West Aboriginal Medical Service clinic to defend applying the government's proposed $7 Medicare co-payment to the service. Senator Fiona Nash joined Nationals member for the South West Colin Holt MLC and SWAMS chief executive officer Neil Fong for a look at the Bunbury-based clinic on Friday. The contentious co-payment would apply to all Medicare-funded consultations, including those provided by 20 Aboriginal health services across regional and metropolitan Western Australia, including SWAMS. But the service confirmed it would join Aboriginal health services across WA in refusing to hit their patients with the fee last month. Senator Nash defended the decision not to grant an exemption to indigenous health services, despite a report showing that indigenous Australians still had a life expectancy 10 years lower than their non-indigenous counterparts, released on the same day as her visit. "I've been talking to indigenous leaders as I know the health minister Peter Dutton has [and] we have been listening very closely to what's been said – but we have said all the way a long that the best thing we can do is make sure that Australians have a sustainable health system into the future and that's why we have taken the decision we have," senator Nash told local media. Last month Mr Fong told the Bunbury Mail that the co-payment would reverse hard-earned steps to close the aboriginal health gap in the South West. “Our patients are generally from the low socio economic demographic – when a mum comes in for an appointment with her three kids in tow, we grab those kids and give them their health checks at the same time, which means any problems are picked up early,” Mr Fong said. “If that mother is being faced with a $35 or $40 charge, she won’t bring them in and then we’ve got no chance.” But senator Nash said a rise in the cost of public health meant the co-payment needed to be applied across the board. "What a lot of people don't realise is that the Medicare system 10 years [costed] us $8 billion, it's costing us $19 billion [and] in 10 years time it's predicted to cost us $34 billion," she said. She said there were protections in place for concessional patients. Concession card holders and children under 16 will still need to pay the co-payment for 10 visits each year.

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