Desperate doctors text patients about $7 Medicare co-payment introduced in the Federal Budget 2014

DOCTORS fear people are abandoning treatments because they think the cost of a visit to a GP already has gone up and they can’t afford it.

DOCTORS alarmed by rising numbers of patient no-shows are sending out messages reassuring patients the $7 Medicare co-payment hasn’t started yet.

They fear people are abandoning treatments because they think the cost of a visit to a GP already has gone up and they can’t afford it.

It’s not just patients who are confused.

Health writer Sue Dunlevy today revealed Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Treasurer Joe Hockey don’t seem to understand their own policy.

Looks like they’re working off a template.

Examples of texts sent by medical centres.

The Australian Medical Association today moved to reassure the public the proposed health tax had not started and pleaded with people to maintain their visits to doctors.

The Government first has to introduce the co-payment to Parliament as a “disallowable instrument” — a type of subordinate law added to an existing provision. If passed it will begin in July next year.

But Labor and the Greens have said they will not vote for it.

AMA president Steve Hambleton today said people were unsure about cost increases and the variety of exemptions.

Dr Hambleton said reports from colleagues in western Sydney in particularly — the zone with the most bulk-billed patients in the country — showed attendance rates were down since the Budget on May 13.

@drpiotrowski Got the same for Med Centre here in Adelaide...

— Michael Cotton (@michaelrcotton) May 22, 2014

Sub-type: comment CAPTION: @drpiotrowski Got the same for Med Centre here in Adelaide...— Michael Cotton (@michaelrcotton) May 22, 2014

@drpiotrowski I got a similar text from Chatswood Medical Centre.

— Stefanie Collett (@stefcollett) May 22, 2014

Sub-type: comment CAPTION: @drpiotrowski I got a similar text from Chatswood Medical Centre.— Stefanie Collett (@stefcollett) May 22, 2014

Doctors have been sending out text messages to regular patients telling them a visit won’t cost more for at least 14 months.

“We are hearing a number of things and there is a fair bit of confusion. We’ve actually got some patients thinking it’s already come in,’’ Dr Hambleton said on Sky News.

“We’ve got practices where there’s less presentations right now. And some of those practices have actually had to resort to actually letting the patients know it doesn’t start until July next year.’’

Liberal senator Zed Seselja on Sky blamed a Labor Party “fear campaign” for the mix-up.

“There’s been a lot of commentary about the Budget and much of it from the Labor Party and others has been deliberately misleading,” he said.

“People are getting a message from the Labor Party that somehow there’s going to be doom and gloom and it’s not the case. It’s absolutely understandable in that context that people are going to have concerns and that there will be some confusion.”

Originally published as Desperate doctors text patients about $7 Medicare co-payment introduced in the Federal Budget 2014