Medicare is now covering just over half of specialist appointment fees, forcing Australians to increasingly dip in to their own pockets. Experts have labelled what rebates there are, "almost meaningless."
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00:00If you've noticed that you're handing over more money when you see the specialists, you're
00:05not alone.
00:06This official data from the AIHW tells us that Medicare is picking up just 52% of specialist
00:13fees between January and March.
00:16That's the lowest rate on record and it's quite a significant drop when we look at figures
00:20from 2004 where Medicare was picking up 72% of specialist fees.
00:26Now these fees include things like consultations and visits, they don't look at surgery.
00:32But when we look at figures from July, we can see Medicare picked up 55% so there was
00:37a slight uptick but overall the trend is down, which many people would already be feeling.
00:44Expectant parents are particularly hard hit.
00:46Medicare covered just 39% of obstetric fees in July compared to 60% in 2009.
00:52Dr Gino Pecoraro, who's the National Association of Specialist Obstetricians and Gynaecologists
00:58President says Medicare rebates are out of touch with reality.
01:02Over time the Medicare rebates fall further and further behind so that we see now where
01:09they're almost meaningless when it comes to accessing care in the federally funded Medicare
01:15sphere.
01:16Specialists want and have long called for Medicare rebates to be increased.
01:21I also spoke to the Granite Institute's Health Program Director Peter Braden who said historically
01:26when rebates have been increased it hasn't necessarily translated to lower out-of-pocket
01:31costs for patients.
01:33Instead he says that governments should be looking at things like shoring up the supply
01:37of specialists, there's well-documented specialist shortages and also looking at expanding public
01:43care for people who can't afford to see a private specialist.
01:46At the moment people are languishing on waitlists to see public specialists for years.
01:51He also said that governments could look at improving transparency around specialist costs
01:57and in some cases they could potentially even penalise specialists who are consistently
02:02charging very high out-of-pocket costs saying that governments could potentially even threaten
02:08to take away the Medicare rebate in that instance.
02:12Let's take a listen.
02:14Bulk billing of specialist care is falling fast and fees are rising fast and nearly a
02:19million Australians say they are delaying or skipping specialist care altogether because
02:24of the cost and that has big effects on people's health and wellbeing.
02:29It's definitely a problem that governments have to tackle.
02:33Now the federal government says it has delivered the largest investments in Medicare in decades.