NEARLY 800,000 people with high medical bills will get back less from the Medicare safety net when they visit GPs and specialists under controversial changes.
The changes will hit the chronically ill, pregnant women, cancer patients and anyone who uses the medical system so extensively they rack up out of pocket expenses worth over $600 a year after receiving standard Medicare rebates.
From January the Medicare safety net payout for specialist visits will see out of pocket expenses for those who have qualified increase from $88 to $94.
And the out of pocket cost for non bulk billed GP visits will rise from $7.60 to $19.45 — again, if a patient qualifies for the safety net — the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners has revealed.
Cancer patients, new mums and the chronically rely on the safety net to help them when their out of pocket medical expenses exceed $638 a year, it covers 80 per cent of any gap payments when this threshold is met.
The government lowered the threshold to qualify for the safety net but imposed new limits on the amount of out of pocket expenses it covered in budget cuts designed to save $266.7 million over five years.
The changes were so complex doctors have only now worked out the effect on a patient’s hip pocket.
The changes are due to take effect in January and have not yet passed the parliament.
RACGP president Dr Frank Jones called on the Senate to reject the changes.
“I think we should be voting against these proposals because patients will be out of pocket, it will put them off seeing their GP and they may go to emergency departments,” he said.
News Corp has previously revealed women needing IVF procedures, the mentally ill and cancer patients are facing up to $15,000 in new out-of-pocket expenses for specialist treatment, including radiation, from January next year as a result of the safety net cuts.
The changes could see the out of pocket costs for IVF leap from $4,000 to $15,000.
Cancer patients will have their out of pocket costs for life saving radiotherapy treble to up to $12,000 under a budget cut that reduces the amount they get from the Medicare safety net.
Private patients undergoing a typical six to seven week course of radiation treatment currently have $12,000 in out-of-pocket expenses, but $10,000 of this is covered by the Medicare Safety Net.
And psychiatrists have warned severely mentally ill patients who need counselling more than once a week could face a $120 per visit bill once they make more than 50 visits a year.
Health Minister Sussan Ley told the National Press Club this week the safety net, introduced by Tony Abbott when he was health minister in 2004, had suffered a massive budget blowout.
It was meant to cost $200 million a year now but it is actually costing $400 million.
Some doctors exploited the scheme by raising their fees in the knowledge the safety net would compensate for the hike on patient’s hip pockets.
And Ms Ley said it was primarily being used by the rich, not the vulnerable.
“We know who claims the Medicare Safety Net now … they are in Australia’s most wealthy suburbs, almost without exception so that doesn’t to me suggest that changing this policy is going to do more for the vulnerable,” she said.
“What it says to me is that this policy is not looking after the vulnerable.”
Independent Senator Nick Xenophon has already signalled he will oppose the policy in the Senate, Labor has yet to announce its position.