THE  Federal Government’s decision to freeze the Medicare rebate for general practitioners until 2020 will force many Tasmanian surgeries to close their doors, GPs say.

High-profile Hobart GP Graeme Alexander, who predicts the issue will become decisive for voters ahead of the July 2 election, said doctors would be forced to pass on the increased costs of business to their patients.

“It will be an increasing struggle to keep the door of general practice open,” said Dr Alexander, who works out of the Claremont Village Medical Practice.

“General practice is now under the threat of survival. We either ask patients to pay more, or we shut the door.”

TASCOSS chief Kym Goodes told a Mercury/UTAS FairGo public forum this week the measure was “co-payments by stealth”, in reference to the defunct plan hatched under Tony Abbott to charge patients $7 for a GP visit.

Part of Federal Treasurer Scott Morrison’s first Budget last week included Medicare rebates being frozen at $37 for a further two years until 2020, which is expected to save the Government close to $1 billion.

Mr Morrison told the Mercury that the rebate freeze was a decision first brought in by Labor and continued by the Coalition as a necessary means to control expenditure.

The Treasurer said the Government wanted to fund health and education without “jacking up taxes by $100 billion over the next 10 years”.

“We want to invest more in hospitals and we’re ensuring that we’re making the savings we need to ensure that we are able to do that,” he said,

So seriously do GPs take the issue that The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners has timed an “antifreeze” campaign — involving the distribution of waiting-room posters to its 30,000 members across Australia — to coincide with the federal election campaign.

Federal Labor health spokeswoman Catherine King said the Opposition would be releasing its health policy during the election campaign, but said Labor was the only party “fully committed” to Medicare.

Dr Alexander said he would not be afraid to start conversations with his own patients about the future of Government support for bulk-billing ahead of the election.

“Health is so important for Tasmanians, so I think this will become a big election issue.”