Amid dwindling rates of bulk billing and a Medicare rebate left largely unchanged for a decade, the government has not committed to any immediate changes to make a doctors visit cheaper.
It has prompted a backlash from the country’s peak medical body, which said the report failed to address the urgent issue facing general practice in the country.
The Australian Medical Association said the report would leave sick and poor Australians with little hope, and risked Medicare becoming nothing more than a “rotting carcass”.
That’s despite Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, his Health Minister Mark Butler and the country’s first ministers assuring there is no “higher priority” than urgent healthcare reform.
The strengthening Medicare report released on Friday recommends the government seek to transform the public health network to one that is more affordable, “blended” and better utilises data and digital technologies.
At a meeting of the national cabinet on Friday, Mr Albanese and the premiers and chief ministers committed to ongoing work to improving primary health networks and the intersecting public hospital systems.
Mr Butler also reiterated his support, saying most stakeholders in the health sector were “very clear that the current system does not fit the needs of Australians”.
But explicit ideas surrounding increasing the Medicare rebate and improving bulk billing across the country have been left out of the report.
Mr Butler said he would not rule out the idea, however, saying affordability was a key recommendation of the report.
“I won’t rule anything out,” he said.
“The task force is very clear on the need to address affordability.
“There are a range of options there … We’ve tried to be absolutely honest and transparent with the Australian people that there is a real challenge here. That is one that we will be facing up to.”
AMA President Steve Robson slammed the report, saying it did little to address the urgent crisis.
“There is absolutely nothing in the report released today that will allow Australians who are struggling to see a GP or struggling to afford to see a GP any more quickly, any more affordably, and Australians who are waiting for operations and surgery to relieve pain and so on, to have these procedures any more quickly,” he said.
“So while the report is very welcome and certainly has changes that will strengthen the system, there is absolutely nothing in the report at the moment that will provide anything immediate, and that is what we need.
“If we don’t invest now in general practice, by the time all of the reform that is in the (report) comes to fruition (in a few years), we’re going to be standing around a rotting carcass of what used to be Medicare.
“We need to resuscitate things now.”
Mr Butler said the rolling out of urgent care clinics, recommended by the report and already underway across the country, was an “innovative way” to provide free, bulk-billed medical services which won’t clog up hospital emergency rooms.
He also said ensuring after-hours GP clinics were available would also take pressure off emergency departments and offer longer consults.
“We need to improve access after usual office hours,” he said.
Acknowledging the changing nature of Australians’ healthcare needs, Mr Butler welcomed the task force’s recommendation of a “blended” funding model.
This would be integrated with the existing fee-for-service model, which would allow teams of GPs, nurses, midwives and allied health professionals to work together.
“The existing system needs to change,” Mr Butler said.
“The needs of patients today are very different to the needs of the 1980s. Back then, most presentations to a GP were episodic, relatively short … Now, we’re dealing with much more chronic disease, ongoing needs and older Australians who tend to have more than one healthcare condition.”
Mr Albanese said patients would be at the forefront of the health system.
“We are taking action right now,” he said.
“The starting point of our discussions isn’t about dollars and shares of funding … It is how do we maximise the benefit to patients from every dollar that is spent in the health system.”
Ahead of the meeting, NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet said he wanted a clear “road map” to fixing the national crisis.
He said he was satisfied the country now had one.
“There will continue to be a substantive discussion on the practical measures in relation to better integrating the primary health care systems, and the public health systems run by the states and territories,” he said.
“It is not about dollars and cents, it is about what is the best health system possible?
“Let’s put patients at the centre of that system, integrate the networks better and in a more efficient way and work out the funding arrangements off the back of it.”
Professor Robson said he felt differently, questioning why the most powerful leaders in the country – all in one room – couldn’t come up with a solution which would provide answers immediately.
He said the Medicare fund – $250m over three years – was a “good starting point” to make substantial change, but what Australians urgently needed was affordable and accessible healthcare “tomorrow”.
“We were hearing talk from all of the premiers, chief ministers, the Health Minister (and Prime Minister) that health is the highest priority … We were surprised to see nothing more come out of it,” he said.
“Doesn’t seem they could agree on anything.”
Mr Albanese said the national cabinet would meet again in April and consider further measures on top of what was already being done.