‘Name and shame’ won’t fix bulk billing. Fund care properly.

MEDIA STATEMENT

‘NAME AND SHAME’ WON’T FIX BULK BILLING. FUND CARE PROPERLY.

AMA Tasmania says the naming of non-bulk billing general practices, being promoted by Federal Labor MP Julie Collins in the electorate of Franklin, is a disappointing political stunt and goes more than a step too far.

Naming and shaming clinics that haven’t been able to viably make the shift to full bulk billing hangs them out to dry. It paints practices as the problem, invites hostility from frustrated patients, and leaves reception staff and GPs to absorb the fallout, including abuse, at the front desk and in the consult room.

Julie Collins must publicly apologise to each of the clinics named in her political flyer, which will now suffer the wrath of their patients for a problem of successive governments’ own making.

The AMA knows of doctors who have chosen to move away from general practice because they are tired of being blamed and because of the anger and abuse that follows. Politicians are implying patients are being denied care by their doctor, when the real issue is the funding model.

It doesn’t create a single extra GP appointment. It doesn’t pay for a single nurse, receptionist or practice manager. It doesn’t keep one clinic’s doors open.

What it does do is shift blame. It invites the public to think clinics are the problem, when the real problem is a Medicare funding model that no longer matches the cost and complexity of modern patient care.

AMA Tasmania President Dr Michael Lumsden-Steel said: “Don’t blame clinics for a funding model governments control. If Medicare doesn’t pay the cost of care, the maths doesn’t work, and patients miss out.”

If Labor wants to talk about bulk billing, it should answer three simple questions: Why doesn’t Medicare cover the real cost of seeing a GP? How are practices meant to stay open if they can’t cover their costs? And why are Australians being offered temporary patches instead of proper, indexed rebates?

Index the rebates, fund urgent care in general practice, and stop cost-shifting to hospitals.

Here is the basic truth politicians keep blurring: the Medicare rebate is the patient’s benefit. It is not the practice fee, and for many it does not cover the full cost of running a practice, including staff wages (GPs, nurses and reception), rent, power, phones, IT, clinical overheads, and compliance.

In very simple terms:

• Medicare pays a set contribution to the patient to help meet the cost of seeing a doctor.
• A clinic can choose to accept that Medicare benefit as full payment (that is bulk billing).
• Or a clinic can charge a fee, with the rebate reducing the out-of-pocket cost for the patient.
• The gap is simply the part Medicare doesn’t fund.
• Those gaps grow when rebates fail to keep pace with the cost of delivering care.
• When rebates don’t keep up with the real cost of delivering care, “bulk bill everyone” becomes a slogan, not a sustainable policy.

AMA Tasmania Vice President Dr Meg Creely, a working GP, said: “Our members feel like political pawns. We want our patients to be able to afford care, but a practice can’t keep the lights on if the rebate doesn’t cover the cost of delivering safe, quality care. We would all bulk bill if it covered costs, and if we were confident, it was properly indexed.”

Former AMA Tasmania President and GP Dr John Saul added that clinics have been trying for years to make the funding model work for their communities, but without proper indexation the numbers simply do not add up.

In Tasmania, this kind of blame game makes a difficult situation worse. It undermines trust in local practices, makes it harder to recruit and retain GPs, and delays access to care for patients who need longer consultations and ongoing management.

Dr Michael Lumsden-Steel, President of AMA Tasmania, said: “In Tasmania, blame games drive doctors away and patients miss out. That’s not reform; it’s negligence.”

AMA Tasmania is calling on the federal government to stop the stunts and do the hard work: properly index Medicare rebates.

Until that happens, “name and shame” isn’t leadership. It’s a cop-out. >>> ENDS