Yahoo Finance Medicare rebates to increase, Shorten promises
Australian families could receive cheaper medical care under a plan proposed by Labor to abolish the suppression of Medicare rebates.
Medicare rebates have not grown with inflation under a Medicare rebate freeze scheme brought in by the Gillard government in 2013 and extended by the Liberal-National government in 2014.
The same government planned to begin winding up the freeze in its 2017 budget, but Labor leader Bill Shorten today announced it would end the rebate freeze within 50 days if the Labor party gains the leadership at the upcoming federal election.
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He said ending the measure in that time frame will mean rebates for around 100 GP services, like counselling and mental health care, will increase with price rises.
But that will come at a cost of $213 million.
The freeze meant the government subsidies paid to GPs did not increase, leading GPs to either pass on the increased price of services to consumers or absorb the costs.
“What this is about is making sure that it’s your Medicare card, not your credit card that determines your health care in this country,” Shorten said today.
He said the freeze had cost Australian families “billions of dollars”.
“The issue around the Medicare rebate freeze is coming to a tipping point,” Independent MP and former president of the Australian Medical Association, Kerryn Phelps told Sky News this morning.
“If indexation had kept up with the cost of managing a practice and there hadn’t been the rebate freeze, then the rebate would be about double what it is at the moment,” she said, warning that the burden on GPs had increased greatly.
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