ANGER is swelling within Liberal ranks over the failed push to cut GP rebates, with MPs condemning the move and urging caution on the introduction of a co-payment amid damaging reports of a cabinet-level split.
Tony Abbott’s office yesterday sought to smooth over reports that the Prime Minister had defied the advice of Joe Hockey and the Health Minister by insisting on the controversial $20 rebate cut, before dumping the proposal last week in an embarrassing backflip.
‘The package of measures announced in December to strengthen Medicare and help make it sustainable, ensuring Australians will continue to have access to affordable, world-class healthcare, was unanimously supported,” said a spokeswoman for Mr Abbott.
Bill Shorten seized on the expenditure review committee leak to say the “dysfunction and division” of last year had continued and warned that the healthcare needs of Australians were being ignored.
“It is not good enough to find out that Treasurer Hockey is fighting with Prime Minister Abbott but the healthcare of Australians is being ignored,” the Opposition Leader said.
“Australians want to see Medicare improved, not attacked.”
South Australian Liberal MP and former general practitioner Andrew Southcott told The Australian yesterday GPs were “affronted” by changes announced in December, including the GP rebate cut and incentive for GPs to charge $5 more for consultations.
He said he had been fielding feedback from contacts in the sector, saying it had been “pretty universally panned”.
“The GPs and primary care sectors were affronted by the way they had been singled out in that change,” he said. “Before the election, we talked a lot about the importance of primary care and our desire to rebuild primary care.
“What’s been confusing a lot of supporters, especially those who support us in the health sector, is how we’ve got bogged down on what really is not a top-order issue. I think the co-payment was sort of asking too much.
“I consult pretty widely in the sector … I’ve never seen a reaction like that and, even for our supporters, they were just a bit baffled.”
He said GPs had been singled out as opposed to specialist colleagues who drew higher incomes.
Queensland MP and former ophthalmologist Andrew Laming was not as critical but agreed that the government had focused too much on changes at a GP level.
He said it was possible to apply a co-payment to higher-fee-charging medical specialists so long as there were protections in place for those who suffered from chronic conditions such as diabetes. “GPs are at liberty to move large numbers of their ill patients on to chronic disease management plans. They haven’t done that so far,” Mr Laming said. “What’s new here is that this protection should extend to specialist visits. Those who are just visiting specialists occasionally should contribute a small co-payment.
“If you don’t have a chronic disease plan, you should be making a small contribution for a specialist visit the same way as you would a general practice visit.”
Australian Medical Association president Brian Owler was sceptical of extending a co-payment to specialists, but was open to consultations with government, saying such a process “could have avoided all of these issues’’.
Source: The Australian