Cancers and other illnesses are going undetected because patients can’t afford $100 bill for scans

CANCERS and other insidious diseases are going undetected in hundreds of thousands of Australians because they can’t front up $100 to get checked.

EXCLUSIVE

ILLNESSES like cancer are going undetected in 300,000 Australians because they can’t afford the scans to diagnose or monitor the progress of their disease.

Medicare rebates have been frozen for two decades and the Federal Government now faces a damaging campaign from the radiology industry.

The radiology industry is claiming Malcolm Turnbull has broken a 2016 election pledge to make scans more affordable.

The nine million patients a year who visit radiology clinics around Australia will from next week be given pamphlets explaining how the government broke its election promise as radiologists demand a Medicare rebate increase.

Patients will be warned their out of pocket costs for X-rays, CT scans, MRIs and other scans will increase incoming years as a result.

“Medicare is sick and the government won’t fix it,” the pamphlet says.

RELATED: Customers overcharged by chemists government review finds

Medicare is sick patients will be told. Picture: iStock

“Unfortunately, if Medicare rebates remain frozen, patients will be forced to pay more out of their own pocket.

“Patients who pay a gap for their services will pay more, and those who do not may soon have to.

“While everything else has gone up, the amount the Government contributes toward the cost of your radiology services has been frozen solid for 19 years.

“And, in some cases, it’s even gone down.”

As part of the campaign every MP will get a letter from radiologists calling for Medicare rebates to be raised.

And there will be particular focus on marginal seats.

RELATED: Will the Federal Government lift Medicare rebate freeze?

Average out of pocket costs for scans like X-rays, MRIs and CT scans are now $100 and many people can’t afford them.

A previously unpublished Australian Bureau of Statistics survey shows 277,300 people delayed or avoided a scan ordered by their doctor in 2015-16 because they couldn’t afford it.

The radiologists campaign threatens to reopen the health war that almost cost Mr Turnbull the last election when Labor’s Medicare campaign saw Mr Turnbull hang on to government by one seat.

And Australian Diagnostic Imaging Association (ADIA) President Dr Christian Wriedt says his organisation will continue its campaign through the federal election period if one is called next year as expected.

The government has broken an election promise on Medicare rebates say radiologists. Picture: Supplied

Mr Wreidt says before that last election he reached a deal with the previous health minister Sussan Ley to index the Medicare rebates for scans when the government ended the freeze on GP rebates in July 2018.

The Turnbull Government abandoned this pledge in the May budget and now only plans to index rebates for just seven per cent of scans in 2020.

“We’re totally frustrated, we had offered a process and it was agreed and we signed off and now a new minister comes along and off goes the agreement,” he said.

If the growth trend for radiology gaps continues, ADIA expects that the average gap for Medicare radiology services will grow from $100 to be $120 in 2020.

The gap for a CT scan will be $184 for CT and MRI $228 by 2020.

Bulk billing rates for a number of high cost scans are already under 50 per cent and ADIA predicts this will fall even further without indexation of the Medicare rebate.

Services that currently have bulk billing rates under 50 per cent include the 18 week pregnancy ultrasound scan, ultrasound-guided interventional procedures and prostate ultrasounds.

The bulk billing rate for diagnostic mammograms is barely above 50 per cent, ADIA says.

Many scans have bulk billing rates of less than 50 per cent. Picture: iStock

Out of pocket expenses for cancer scans (average gaps for 2015-16)

Bowel cancer

CT chest, abdomen and pelvis $150

CT chest $150

Nuclear medicine bone scan $105

MRI of pelvis $184

CT chest, abdomen and pelvis $600

Total: $1189

Breast cancer

Diagnostic mammogram $87

Ultrasound breast $105

Ultrasound-guided biopsy/fine needle aspiration $105

Total: $297

Ovarian cancer

Ultrasound pelvis $105

CT abdomen and pelvis $150

CT abdomen and pelvis (assess treatment success) $150

CT abdomen and pelvis $750

Ultrasound pelvis (follow up monitoring) $105

Total: $1260

Melanoma

PET scan $220

MRI brain $184

CT chest, abdomen and pelvis $600

Total: $1004