The federal government’s plan to charge patients a compulsory $7 fee to see a doctor is dead, Prime Minister Tony Abbott has announced.
In a press conference in Canberra on Tuesday afternoon, Mr Abbott conceded the unpopular proposal – first detailed in the May budget – did not have the support to pass the Senate.
The government, however, will reduce Medicare rebates for common GP consultations by $5 for adults who are non-concession card holders from July 1 next year.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott has conceded the government’s planned $7 GP fee will have little hope of passing the Senate. Photo: Andrew Meares
Doctors will be left the option of charging a $5 “discretionary” fee for adults to recoup the rebate reduction or continue to bulk-bill those patients.
Mr Abbott said doctors would have to consult patients for 10 minutes or more to reduce “the phenomenon of 6-minute medicine, sausage machine medicine, some clinics where patients are churned through”.
Rebates will also be frozen over the estimates period to make up some of the budget shortfall that will come from dumping the $7 fee.
Mr Abbott said this was a measure Labor had had in place for some time.
The decision to drop the $7 fee follows a turbulent fortnight in which the government struggled to communicate a clear message on whether it would shelve the GP fee policy or try to bypass the Senate and introduce it through other means, such as regulation.
Under the new plan, children under 16, pensioners, veterans and people in aged care and nursing homes will be exempt.
“I’ve had members of the community coming to me saying we support the idea of more price signals in the system, that’s an economic reform, but can’t it be better for children and for pensioners?” Mr Abbott said.
“And that’s exactly what [Health Minister] Peter Dutton and I are announcing today.
“A system which is better for children and for pensioners, a new and improved proposal which indicates that this is a government which is always capable of listening, learning and improving.”
Late last month, Mr Abbott told his colleagues he intended to knock “one or two barnacles of the ship” before Christmas.
The announcement comes just days after Mr Abbott was forced to announce changes to his signature paid parental leave policy.
More to come