Medicare is now covering just over half of specialist fees, forcing Australians to increasingly dip into their own pockets and delay vital care.
Medicare funded just 52 per cent of specialist provider fees between January and March, the lowest rate on record. Medicare is now covering just over half of specialist fees , forcing Australians to increasingly dip into their own pockets and delay vital care as experts warn Medicare rebates have become "almost meaningless".
"It is so far out of touch with what it actually costs to access the services that it doesn't provide any degree of comfort to the patients who have to purchase these services." After being unable to access a publicly funded midwifery program in the regional Victorian town of Wodonga, Danielle Tooley had to fork out hundreds of dollars for private appointments and scans during her second pregnancy."It is a concern because if you have a complication in your pregnancy, you do have to pay a lot more money for more regular appointments and scans, and there's probably a lot of women out there who just can't afford to pay that.
"These fees probably aren't a big surprise because you've got some constraints on the supply of specialists and no-one regulates their fees," he said. More than 10 per cent of Australians aged over 15 delayed seeing a medical specialist when they needed to in 2022-23 because of the cost,Those who cannot afford private fees are left to languish on public waitlists, with the ABC last year revealing some Australians are
He said solutions to the problem included boosting the supply of specialists, expanding public care for people who could not afford private fees, and increasing transparency around how much specialists charged.
Rebates Specialists Funing Out Of Pocket Costs Doctor Fees Specialist Fees Mark Butler
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