Health care costs rising
Getting sick could now cost you almost $100 in out-of-pocket expenses, as doctors and pathology laboratories abandon bulk-billing and Medicare rebates fail to keep pace with fees.
A report in Sydney’s Daily Telegraph says that one of the nation’s biggest general practice providers, Primary Health Care, has stopped bulk-billing in 16 of its medical clinics and is also introducing patient charges for blood and urine testing.
Primary Health Care managing director, Ed Bateman, said the new charges were being introduced because government Medicare funding no longer met the full cost of providing these patient services.
Some general practitioners charge $66 for a visit and the Medicare rebate covers just $34 of this amount. Pathology labs now charge patients up to $62 for a urine test and Medicare rebates cover just half of this amount.
In addition, families will have to pay up to $33.30 out of their own pocket when they get a prescription filled from 1 January after the patient charge for subsidised drugs rose 40c per script. Pensioners and welfare recipients pay $5.40 for prescriptions.
