Australian Medical Association urges PM Tony Abbott to prevent rebate cut for short GP visits

Updated

The Australian Medical Association (AMA) has launched a last-ditch bid to stop the Federal Government cutting the Medicare rebate for short GP visits.

AMA president Brian Owler has written to Prime Minister Tony Abbott, urging him to personally intervene and halt the regulation before it starts next Monday.

Doctors' groups have been furiously campaigning against the Government's pre-Christmas move to cut the rebate paid to doctors by $20 for consultations less than 10 minutes.

In a sternly-worded letter, Associate Professor Owler warned Mr Abbott that practices would not be able to absorb the cuts and costs would be passed on to patients.

"The level of anger and disbelief within the general practitioner community ... is unprecedented," the letter said.

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten confirmed Labor would join the Greens and several crossbench senators in moving to strike down the change in the Senate when it returns next month.

But Associate Professor Owler said he feared the disallowance motion could take weeks or months to come into effect.

"In the meantime, patients and doctors would be hit with higher charges and costs unless the Government bowed to common sense and undid the change before next Monday," he said.

Both the Prime Minister and Health Minister Sussan Ley are on annual leave.

But Associate Professor Owler said he still expected Mr Abbott to deal with the concerns raised by the AMA.

"I'm on leave myself and I offered the opportunity that I'd come back from leave to meet with him if that was necessary," Associate Professor Owler said.

"We saw the Prime Minister at the cricket and on radio trying to defend the policy yesterday ... the only one that really has the power to stop the changes going ahead is the Prime Minister."

Ms Ley's office released a statement yesterday criticising Labor for opposing the rebate cut and defending the policy.

"The Abbott Government has put forward a clear plan ... which ensures Medicare rebates will more accurately reflect the time a doctor spends with their patient and encourage longer GP consultations for better health outcomes," the statement said.

"Without reform, Medicare will collapse under its own weight and jeopardise the world-class, affordable health care Australians take for granted."

Rebate cuts 'bad policy'

Mr Shorten told the ABC's AM program that doctors had convinced him of the virtues of short GP consultations.

Sorry, this video has expired Video: Labor health spokesperson Catherine King speaks with the ABC (ABC News)

"When you go and talk to GPs, they make this very good point to me which I found very persuasive ... these GPs say, 'Sometimes we can see people in quicker than 15 minutes but that's because we've got 10, 20, 30, 40 years' experience'.

"No-one believes this is about medicine or health care in Australia.

"They all think it's about a Government who can't get their way on their GP tax."

The Labor leader said it had become clear to him the changes were bad policy.

"We seriously consider what the Government proposes on all their issues, but there's been no doubt that any reasonable person, when examining the evidence and the submissions of the AMA and GPs all around Australia, [find] this is a terrible idea," he said.

Labor's health spokesperson Catherine King said doctors were being handed an "awful choice".

"We saw a collapse in bulk billing when Tony Abbott was health minister and that is what he wants to do in this country," she said.

"He wants to drive bulk billing down and Labor will stand against Tony Abbott's attacks on Medicare and make sure Medicare continues as the core of our healthcare system."

AMA vice-president Stephen Parnis said he questioned the Government's reasons for changing the rebate.

"Yesterday the PM said this is about improving quality. It's actually not. It's really about trying to pull back over $1 billion into the budget," he told ABC News Breakfast.

"That is their first priority, and what we are concerned about, our first priority as health care is this will undermine the provision of care."

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

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