The Federal Government’s decision to dump the co-payment for GP visits has been described as a win for common sense by the Australian Medical Association’s West Australian branch (AMA WA).
Prime Minister Tony Abbott said on Tuesday the fee plan was “dead, buried and cremated”.
AMA WA president Michael Gannon said the co-payment had been unpopular in the community.
“This is a victory for common sense, this is a proposal that didn’t have the support of GPs, and didn’t have the support of the community,” he said.
“There were elements of the proposal that might have worked quite well, and it was a proposal that recognised that we need to do something about GP financing.”
Dr Gannon said something needed to be done to tackle rising costs.
“We need to find a way for those who can afford to, to make a greater contribution to their health care but what it didn’t do was offer protections for that significant proportion of the population, the working poor, where it might have stopped them going to the doctor in the first place,” he said.
“And seeing your GP is a very cost effective part of the health system.
“I think this is a victory for those people in Australia who do get forgotten, the working poor – those who aren’t on healthcare cards.”
He said the scrapping of the co-payment was not the end of the story.
“The reality is in many parts of the state people already do pay to see the GP, and that the fee to see the doctor bears no relationship to the amount you get back from Medicare.
“I really think we need to have a grown-up conversation in this country about how we fund the year-on-year increase in the health budget, so although [it’s] a victory for common sense, I don’t believe it’s the end of the story.
“We’ve always got to look for savings, we need to start to think about ways that those people who can afford to make a greater contribution, but this proposal is dead and buried.”