Healthcare costs city residents up to $600 a year

OUT-OF-POCKET medical fees are costing Gold Coast residents up to $600 a year.

The city is rated as the highest spender on health in the state outside of Brisbane as residents are forced to pay more for their subsidised Medicare healthcare.

A report by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare reveals the staggering outof-pocket medical fees facing Coast families, with the average resident spending close to $200-$600 a year for non-hospital care. The Coast is only outstripped by Brisbane, where residents are forced to pay up to $650 annually.

More than 4.3 per cent of those interviewed on the Gold Coast said they had delayed medical treatment due to cost in the past 12 months.

Dr Andrew Weissenberger, practice principal of the Hope Island Medical Practice, said cost should not prevent people getting the help they need.

“It troubles me, we never want cost to be a barrier to our patients accessing timely healthcare,” he said.

“People are making financial decisions about healthcare, unfortunately that often means a greater demand on our public health system. The freeze on the Medicare rebate scheme has been disastrous, and we have costs that continue to increase yet our rebate hasn’t, which means our gaps go up.”

Queensland Labor Senator Murray Watt said there were “increasing reports” of people putting off medical treatment because they couldn’t afford it and said he would prefer to see money set for tax cuts put into hospital and Medicare funding.