Why has the AMA given up on a ‘big fix’ for the GP funding crisis?
COMMENT: To answer that, we need to go back to Tony Abbott's $7 'stuff-up'
This is the ‘big fix’ for the GP funding crisis, the fix to ensure the specialty has the resources to do its job: allow doctors to charge a gap fee on a bulk-billed consult.
Under the Health Insurance Act it is illegal of course.
It was part of a deliberate policy back in 1973 to speed up rebate payments to doctors in return for making no out-of-pocket demands the patient.
And of course, it helped ensure that, for those who failed to embrace bulked rebates, Medicare payments would run in slow motion.
