PM and health minister signal willingness to consider alternative models in talks with AMA president Brian Owler
The Abbott government is prepared to rethink the design of its proposed $7 GP co-payment, the Australian Medical Association (AMA) has declared, after a meeting in Canberra on Wednesday.
In a potentially significant shift on a budget measure that was likely to face Senate defeat, Tony Abbott and his health minister, Peter Dutton, are said to have signalled their willingness to consider alternative models at a meeting with the AMA leadership at Parliament House.
The AMA president, Brian Owler, described the meeting as “constructive” and said the prime minister and the health minister had listened to the organisation’s concerns about the impact of the proposed new fee on vulnerable patients.
“I think the message that was clear today was a commitment on behalf of the prime minister and the minister to look at alternative models, something that we haven’t heard before, or since the budget was announced, and I think that’s a very positive move,” Owler said at a press conference after the meeting.
Asked to confirm the government had indicated it was willing to adjust the GP co-payment, Owler said: “The prime minister and the minister made it fairly clear in the meeting that they were willing to look at alternative models and consider those on their merits.
“Obviously if there’s a model that’s acceptable to the AMA that we’re able to support I’m hoping the government will support that model, and so I think for the first time [there’s] an indication at least that there’s a willingness to revisit the model that they’ve put forward in the budget.”
Guardian Australia is seeking comment from Abbott and Dutton’s offices about the government’s stance on potential changes.
The government’s proposed GP co-payment, due to begin in July next year, was set to face Senate defeat given the opposition by Labor, the Greens and Palmer United. The government has repeatedly defended the measure, saying the money raised would go into a medical research future fund. But the co-payment has attracted widespread community concern and spurred reports that some people were already putting off visits to the GP fearing the fee had already begun.
Owler said the prime minister and the minister had shown a “willingness to work with the AMA to come up with a solution that protects vulnerable people, that supports general practice and makes sure that we support things like preventive health care and chronic disease management”.
He said the AMA agreed that there were people in society who could contribute to their health care, noting that 20% of GP services already attracted a co-payment and it was often larger than $7. But the AMA could not support a cut to the Medicare rebate and was worried about the impact of the fee on vulnerable groups.
Owler said the AMA also did not support allowing state and territory governments to charge co-payments for emergency department visits. He said the idea was “impractical” and he did not want to force people to decide whether their chest pain may be a heart attack or merely indigestion.
“What we want to do is work with the government to come up with a model that not only promotes health care and promotes the health of our patients but protects those that are most vulnerable,” he said.
“We must make sure that we protect those most vulnerable in our society and we must make sure that funding is maintained for general practice which is about keeping people out of expensive health care.”