Health Minister Peter Dutton has denied that a trial allowing private health insurers to cover GP visits will lead to a two-tiered health system that could resemble the American model.
The trials have granted superior access to GP services for selected Medicare Private and Bupa members in Victoria and Queensland.
Current legislation does not permit private insurers to subsidising fees for GP services, meaning the insurers have been funding “administrative” costs at clinics.
Fairfax Media reported on Sunday that Queensland trials were allowing Medibank Private members guaranteed appointments within 24 hours and after-hours home visits.
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The model has been criticised by the Australian Medical Association and the health program director at the Grattan Institute, Stephen Duckett, who said it would lead to an “increasing number of GPs charging higher fees, increasing costs both to consumers and the taxpayer”.
But Mr Dutton insisted the Abbott Government would “never” go down the path of a two-tier American system, and that the government was “absolutely committed to Medicare”.
He said trial’s purpose was to provide better preventative care before a patient’s worsened five or 10 years later.
“About 12 million Australians have private health insurance and at the moment the private health insurers only know about those people being sick when they get the bill from the hospital, or the surgeon or the anaesthetist,” he said.
“If they can spend money earlier in the cycle [to] help to keep that person healthy, it will save them spending money in a tertiary hospital down the track.”
Mr Dutton said the government was looking forward to receiving recommendations from the private insurers when the trials conclude in the coming months.
While the Greens are preparing a bill to close what it describes is a “loophole”, Mr Dutton insisted the trials were “completely within the existing legislation”.
However Mr Dutton said he had not sought or received advice on whether legislation needed to be changed.
Shadow Health Minister Catherine King said the trials were an attempt by the government to “dismantle Medicare”.
“The Abbott Government has already approved the biggest increases to private health insurance premiums in almost a decade, and now they want Australians to pay even more,” she said.
Source: Brisbane Times