THE hard-earned steps towards closing the gap on aboriginal health would be lost if the South West Aboriginal Medical Service forced its patients to pay a fee.
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Service chief executive officer Neil Fong said the federal government’s proposed $7 GP co-payment could also lead to security issues for staff who would have to handle cash on site.
The Bunbury-based service will join Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services across WA in refusing to pass on the fee to patients, announced by the Aboriginal Health Council of WA last week.
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.
If that mother is being faced with a $35 or $40 charge, she won’t bring (the kids) in and then we’ve got no chance.
- South West Aboriginal Medical Service chief executive Neil Fong.
Mr Fong told the Bunbury Mail that the perception that it was “just $7” did not reflect reality.
“Our patients are generally from the low socio economic demographic – when a mum comes in for an appointment with her three kids in tow, we grab those kids and give them their health checks at the same time, which means any problems are picked up early,” Mr Fong said.
“If that mother is being faced with a $35 or $40 charge, she won’t bring them in and then we’ve got no chance.”
Mr Fong said a decline in early screening tests could mean that the first time aboriginal patients would access health care was when they were in renal failure or having a heart attack.
Federal member for Forrest Nola Marino told the 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.”
