THE controversial GP fee could be bought into effect without parliamentary approval in the same way the government this week sidestepped the parliament to introduce petrol indexation. Health Minister Peter Dutton on Thursday October 30 repeatedly refused to rule out using a regulation to cut Medicare rebates by $5 to achieve the $3.5 billion in savings from the GP fee outlined in the budget. “That would cut the rebate, take money away from patients and away from GPs and that would be bad for health care,” he said. The government can simply introduce a regulation to slash the current $37.05 schedule fee for a GP visit by $5 to $32.05 to achieve the savings it wants in the budget. This would have the effect of cutting the Medicare rebate by $5.
Posted on: Mon, 03 Nov 2014 09:23:18 +0000
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