How the medicare rebate freeze could affect patients
Could you be affected by the government’s medicare indexation freeze?
Doctors who bulk bill charge Medicare’s schedule fee and are directly reimbursed by the government.
But doctors who don’t bulk bill are free to set their own prices, with patients footing the bill for the cost remaining after the the rebate.
The Coalition Government has decided to extend the indexation freeze another two years to 2020, meaning GPs and other medical specialists will be reimbursed the same amount for delivering health services in 2020 as they were in 2014.
So what does it mean for future visits to the doctor?
To find out more, we were joined by Dr Brian Morton, Chair of the Australian Medical Association.
