Bulk bill ads warn of rebate freeze
DOCTORS will tonight launch TV advertisements to warn patients they will have to pay to see a doctor as they escalate their campaign against the Turnbull government’s six-year freeze on Medicare rebates.
In an unprecedented move, the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners will launch two advertisements depicting a mother and a young girl delaying medical treatment they can’t afford.
“The Federal Government’s freeze on Medicare rebates means you’ll pay more to see a doctor,” the ads say.
“In Australia your wealth should not affect your health”.
The group normally leaves medical politics to the AMA and its intervention in the election campaign underlines the depth of outrage in the medical community against the Medicare freeze.
Doctors are already displaying posters in their surgeries campaigning against the cuts and some are printing protest messages on prescriptions.
Two thirds of doctors have told two separate surveys they are planning to end bulk billing and introduce a $15 fee to see a doctor as a result of the freeze.
RACGP president Dr Frank Jones says the freeze will cost doctors on average $50,000 in income a year and to survive financially they will have to end bulk billing. The ads will run until the federal election on July 2 but Dr Jones denies the ads are political.
“The RACGP has no political affiliation – we simply want to engage with patients about the fiscal consequences of this policy,” he says.
The Labor Party last week committed to lifting the Medicare rebate freeze from January next year and has also pledged to scrap the government’s $5 hike on prescription medicine prices.
Health Minister Sussan Ley this week said she understood doctors concerns about the cuts but said Treasury and Finance were not allowing her to end them.
Prime Minster Malcolm Turnbull said the Medicare freeze could be absorbed because bulk billing rates had never been higher.
In a separate video posted on YouTube, Dr Jones tells patients GP practices in some lower socio-economic areas will have to close as a result of the campaign.
“The message is clear: GPs will not be able to bulk bill if the freeze continues and if you are sick you’ll pay more for being sick and no-one will be immune,” he said.
“Our college is now is the midst of one of our biggest public advocacy campaigns to alert patients and the general public about the profound ramifications to their health care provision at their very own GP.”
Outgoing Australian Medical Association president Dr Brian Owler also lashed the government over its health policy in his parting address to the Australian Medical Association.