THE South West Aboriginal Medical Service will refuse to pass on the cost of the federal government’s proposed $7 Medicare co-payment to its patients.
The Bunbury-based service will join Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services across WA in the decision, announced today by the Aboriginal Health Council of WA.
Council chairperson Marelda Tucker said the decision would cost the aboriginal health sector millions in foregone revenue, but was essential to ensure aboriginal people continued to visit the doctor.
The co-payment was proposed in the recent federal budget to apply to all Medicare-funded consultations, including those provided by 20 aboriginal health services across regional and metropolitan Western Australia.
“Western Australia’s aboriginal health sector is opposed to the introduction of the Medicare co-payment, because it will discourage low-income earners from visiting the doctor,” Ms Tucker said.
“If the federal government pushes ahead with the co-payment, the only way we will be able to ensure many aboriginal people continue to visit the doctor is to meet the cost of the co-payment from our own revenues, and not pass the $7 fee on to patients.”
In May, Federal member for Forrest Nola Marino told the Bunbury Mail the government would continue to invest in health but to protect Medicare into the future it needed to be made more sustainable.
Mrs Marino explained that the government would continue to subsidise all Medicare services and the majority of the costs but from July 1, 2015, Australians would be asked to “make a modest contribution to their health care costs”.
“Previous bulk-billed patients can expect to make a contribution of $7 to the cost of most visits to the GP and out-of-hospital pathology and diagnostic imaging services with the contribution capped at 10 visits a year for commonwealth concession card holders and children under 16,” she said.
“New lower thresholds in the single Medicare safety net will help more people and ensure that safety net benefits are available to people who have serious medical conditions or have prolonged health care needs.”