The MBS Review Taskforce’s draft plan for general practice should be used as the basis for a major funding boost but bigger reform is needed to address Medicare’s problems, the AMA says.

In its official response to the draft recommendations of the review’s general practice and primary care committee, the AMA says it supports the general direction being proposed, although it has real problems with many of the individual changes.

It also says its GP members are worried that many of the recommendations are seeking to reduce existing rebates at a time when practices face shrinking margins and growing administrative challenges.

“What general practice has been crying out for is a significant injection of funding, not just a redistribution of the existing funding pool,” it says.