Patients have been spared a $20 fee for short GP visits, but are likely to face higher out of pocket costs in July when other Abbott Government changes take effect.
Health Minister Sussan Ley returned from leave earlier than planned on Thursday to announce the government would abandon changes which would have reduced the Medicare rebate for many visits of less than ten minutes duration by $20.
The change, which was due to take effect on Monday, was estimated to save the budget $1.3 billion over four years.
Ms Ley has not withdrawn other proposals, announced in December by her predecessor, Peter Dutton, including a $5 cut to the rebate for standard GP visits, which is due to take effect on July 1.
Doctors groups welcomed the backdown on the rebate cut for short visits, but warned they would need to charge patients more to make up for the $5 rebate cut.
“Patients will be impacted,” said Brian Morton, the chairman of the Australian Medical Association’s council of general practice.
“The $5 cut will be a real issue because general practice is a small business, and the rebates have been frozen for so long.”
Medicare rebates have been frozen since November 2012, and the Abbott Government plans to extend this freeze until 2018, to save about $1.3 billion over four years.
The freeze applies not just to GP items but also services provided by specialists, optometrists and allied health practitioners such as physiotherapists.
This will increase pressure on practitioners to charge their patients higher gap fees to make up for what represents a real-terms reduction in Medicare funding.
Royal Australian College of General Practitioners president Frank Jones said he was pleased the government had “listened to the profession and the community” and abandoned the changes to rebates for short visits.
But he called on Ms Ley to also place the $5 rebate cut and the freeze on hold and consult with doctors.
He said Australian GPs provided “an excellent standard of care” but this could not continue under “the present Medicare rebate system”.
Ms Ley said she did not have an alternative plan to make savings from Medicare but said “doing nothing is not an option” and she was committed to introducing a “price signal of a modest co-payment … for those who have the capacity to pay”.
“I look forward to visiting doctors in their own parts of the world and I look forward to talking to them and finding out what matters (to them),” she said.
“This is a matter for pausing and consulting, so I don’t know where that consultation process is going to end.”