Transcript: AMA President Doorstop, Federal Government abandons $20 Medicare rebate cut, 15 January 2015

BRIAN OWLER: The AMA welcomes the announcement that Minister Ley made earlier this morning. We are very pleased that the changes to the Level A and Level B rebates have been taken off the table. This was really essential if we were going to move ahead with having a proper consultation and discussion about the sustainability of Medicare and making our health system better for patients but also more sustainable in the longer term.

Now the AMA still has concerns about some of the changes such as the freezing indexation but at least now we have some time to have a discussion with the government, with the new Minister to look at those proposals and hopefully come up with some better arrangements for our Medicare system in the future. 

The Level A and Level B changes were always going to be a problem. I'm glad that common sense has prevailed in getting these changes off the table. It is a win for grassroots GPs and their patients.  And I think this is a very good outcome for GPs, driven mainly by a very grassroots local campaign by GPs in their communities, and I think it has been very successful.  And I'm glad that the Government has acted and that we don't have a situation where we have to go through this drawn out process of disallowing the regulation through Parliament.

JOURNALIST: Will you continue to oppose the other measures that remain?

BRIAN OWLER: Look, the AMA will not be supporting cuts to the Medicare rebate and while we have always said that we are not against a co-payment per se, we want to make sure that there are protections there for vulnerable patients in our community, the sick and the poor and we want to make sure that those with chronic diseases are well looked after.

So I think at least now we have some time to talk about these other changes. We have some time to talk about freezing to indexation which is also going to have very significant consequences for the affordability, not just of GP consultations, but specialist care provided by people in our hospital system. There are a range of issues we need to discuss.

We very much welcome the announcement that has been made by the Government and by the new minister, Minister Ley this morning, and we look forward to working with her in a very constructive manner over the next few months.

JOURNALIST: What were the un-intended consequences of the changes?

BRIAN OWLER: What it would mean is that 25 per cent of consultations would fall under 10 minutes – it was a slap in the face for our experienced GPs who are really able to provide quality care for patients in that period.

It was either going to mean that patients would be paying more than $20 in out of pocket for those shorter visits or it was going to mean extended consultations which would have consequences for access for patients to see their GP.  And of course there was going to be real issues for the viability of practices where costs weren't going to be able to be transferred onto patients, because there are many GPs practising in lower socio-economic groups and areas where they just couldn't pass on those costs.  So the viability, the services that those GPs were going to be providing was going to be an issue.  So these are the sorts of consequence it would have, not to mention the flow-on effects of people avoiding going to the doctor or turning up in our emergency departments which are already overcrowded and struggling to see the amount of patients presenting to them.

JOURNALIST: The PM says this is a victory for pragmatism. Is that your assessment, too?

BRIAN OWLER: I think the pragmatic approach is to take this off the table. That's why I wrote to the PM last week asking him to take action and asking him to make sure we didn't have these ridiculous arrangements coming in on 19th January, a terrible time of year where people are away on holidays, practice managers weren't able to deal with the changes and a lot of confusion amongst people in the community.  

But at the end of the day the real victory is for grassroots GPs and for the patients that they serve and I think that's a very good outcome for those people going to see their GP and for those GPs who are providing those vital services in our community.

JOURNALIST: The changes were due to come in on Monday. What does this mean now for Monday?

BRIAN OWLER: Well, (inaudible) on Monday will essentially be status quo. We will be urgently writing to our members and GPs right around the country to inform them of the changes, to give them advice about what to do, essentially continue with status quo and of course hopefully they will be able to reverse any of the arrangements that would have been made, and I think they will be able to do that.

We will get that information out to GPs.  I'm sure the message will travel far and wide very quickly.  I know that there was great interest by GPs on this particular issue, probably more interest from GPs on this issue than there has ever been about a GP issue, certainly in the last 10 years, probably 20 years.  So hopefully it will be status quo for patients going to see their GPs on Monday.  I think common sense and pragmatism have prevailed and that's a good outcome for patients and GPs.

JOURNALIST: Do you think this reprieve was brought about by the fact that Labor and the Greens were (inaudible) the Senate?

BRIAN OWLER: Yes, a process of disallowance. We've seen Labor, the Greens and crossbenchers all indicating that they would support a disallowance motion and that this would have been a terrible thing for patients and GPs, having to go through that process.

I know for a fact that MPs in the Government have been inundated by their local GPs and their patients with expressions of unhappiness from people right across the country, and I think that sheer volume of unhappiness of (inaudible) been receiving over the past few weeks has taken them by surprise.  And I think that's why it really is a victory very much for a grassroots campaign by GPs, but also the other organisations, including the AMA, but the colleges who have all worked very well to make sure that these changes didn't go ahead.

JOURNALIST: The PM is on holidays.  Do you think he will probably enjoy his holiday a bit more now that this has been resolved in part?

BRIAN OWLER: I hope that we can all enjoy our holidays a bit more now that the changes have been stopped.  It’s a terrible time of year to be instituting such policy and we said that just before Christmas.

It really is a very unfortunate way that they've gone about these changes, it wasn't necessary, and unfortunately it's meant that we've had people, the PM, the new Minister for Health on leave while people have been trying to come to terms with these changes.  But I'm glad that through the persistence of the AMA and other groups, but also grassroots GPs, that we have been able to see common sense prevail. Good. Cheers. Thank you.

15 January 2015

CONTACT:         Odette Visser                       02 6270 5412 / 0427 209 753