Conclusions
A compulsory co-payment for bulk billed GP consultations will
exacerbate already high financial barriers that Australians face
when accessing health care and essential medications, and
further undermine any claims that our current health system has
to equity and fairness.
The key to a financially sustainable healthcare system is a
primary healthcare system that is accessible to all and which
enables individuals to obtain early diagnosis and treatment, thus
averting higher downstream healthcare costs that inevitably
arise through delayed access to care. Instead of creating a barrier
to access primary health care through the introduction of compulsory
co-payments, the Federal Government should do more
to curb unsustainable spending by addressing current inadequacies
within the health system.
Given the burden of out-of-pocket costs found in the general
population, and in people with chronic disease in particular, there
is an urgent need to review the impact of out-of-pocket expenditure
in the current system. We therefore endorse the recommendation
made by the Consumer’s Health Forum to improve
the current system by developing a national policy on co-payments,
informed by community consultation and the growing
body of Australian research.22 Our concern with the recent
Budget announcement is the serious erosion to the principle of
universalism that has underpinned Medicare for the past three
decades.