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AMA calls on Government to save Medicare

Following a meeting of the AMA's RVS Policy Committee in Canberra this morning, the AMA will call on the Prime Minister to arrange an urgent meeting between the AMA and the Government's Expenditure Review Committee (ERC) in an effort to have implementation of the RVS included in the May Budget.

The RVS - or Relative Value Study - is the first comprehensive review of the Medicare Benefits Schedule of Fees since its inception nearly thirty years ago. Produced jointly by the AMA and the Government, the RVS is effectively the Medicare survival kit.

AMA President, Dr Kerryn Phelps, said today that if the Government dumps the RVS, the Government is dumping Medicare.

Dr Phelps said Medicare depends on the level of patient rebates covering a large proportion of their medical costs.

"This principle is being lost as the real value of rebates falls and will continue to decline dramatically if the RVS is not implemented.

"The availability of medical services in low income and rural areas requires reasonable rebates because the patients quite literally cannot afford the gaps.

"It is vital that the AMA be given the opportunity to present this alarming and genuine scenario to the Government before the May Budget.

"It is apparent that the message has not been getting through to the highest levels of Government through the traditional means - that is, via the Minister responsible for these matters."

Dr Phelps said that the AMA had given up waiting for the Health Minister, Dr Wooldridge, to act on the RVS findings.

"Dr Wooldridge has had the RVS for four months now and has not responded to it publicly or in discussions with the AMA," Dr Phelps said.

"It is clear that Dr Wooldridge has done nothing to put the RVS on the Budget agenda.

"Instead, he has used the RVS as a weapon to attack doctors by claiming that the RVS is simply a mechanism to increase the income of doctors.

"It is a sad day indeed when a Federal Health Minister refuses to listen to the views of doctors and their patients.

Dr Phelps said that despite Dr Wooldridge's snubs to doctors and universal health care in this country, the AMA is determined to push ahead with efforts to have the RVS implemented.

"If the Government puts the RVS in the 'too-hard basket', Medicare will quickly develop some worrying symptoms," Dr Phelps said.

"Bulk-billing will become history in less than a year and patients' gaps will continue to increase.

"Without the RVS, Australia will have a two-tier health system - one for the 'haves' and one for the 'have-nots',"

Dr Phelps said.

CONTACT: John Flannery (02) 6270 5477 / (0419) 494 761

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