Australian Associated Press in Melbourne theguardian.com

Sunday 12 January 2014

Proposal to make people pay out-of-pocket fees for seeing their doctor is condemned as beginning of the end for Medicare

Patients will line up in emergency rooms rather than seeing their GP if fees are brought in, a protest in Melbourne has heard. Photograph: Rex

More than 200 protesters have gathered in Melbourne to rally against a proposal to make Australians pay an out-of-pocket fee for GP visits.

The demonstrators met at the State Library armed with banners and political flags, arguing the working poor and women would be hardest hit by the proposal.

The proposal to introduce a co-payment scheme of $5 or $6 for bulk-billed GP consultations has been received by a national commission of audit set up by the Abbott government.

Doctor groups and political parties have criticised such a move, claiming it would destroy Medicare and limit access to GPs for some community groups.

The acting Greens leader, Dr Richard Di Natale, who will chair a Senate committee established to report on the commission of audit, said it represented the biggest ever assault on Medicare. "We are on a fast track to a two-tiered highly privatised health system," he told the rally.

"You get one level of healthcare if you're wealthy and have a high level of private insurance and you get second-rate healthcare if you're on a low or middle income.

"What we need to do is to build up Medicare, not to tear it down."

Di Natale earlier told reporters there were ways the government could save money in the health system including ensuring Australia bought cheaper generic drugs at lower cost and assessing unfair private health insurance subsidies.

But putting a barrier in front of someone needing to see a doctor would cost the health system more in the long run because people would turn to emergency departments instead, he said.

"They'll put off what are simple treatable problems until they become more expensive and sometimes life-threatening conditions," he said.

The federal government has said it would not speculate on what the commission of audit may or may not recommend.

The commission is due to deliver an interim report before the end of January.

Melbourne protest over GP fees plan | World news | theguardian.com