Big problem for Albanese as Medicare urgent care clinics cost five times more than a GP visit

Labor is forging ahead with absolutely no conclusive proof the huge amounts of money being spent on urgent care is actually working, argues Clare Armstrong.

Analysis: No one in their right mind is going to complain about getting a bulk billed GP appointment, but that doesn’t mean healthcare spending should avoid scrutiny.

Yet Labor is clearly betting on voters being more focused on the sheer relief of only having to hand over a Medicare card to pay for a trip to one of their 87 urgent care clinics than what the ultimate cost of the scheme really is.

Thanks to an independent review quietly released literally hours before the federal election was called, we now know the hit to the budget for an average urgent care clinic visit is $246.

This is five times more than the $42 for a normal GP trip, but also three times cheaper than the $616 taxpayers ultimately fork out when someone goes to a hospital emergency department.

The whole point of the urgent clinics was to stop people going to a hospital for things like broken bones or an ear infection, which would ultimately ease pressure on emergency departments and save money.

In principle it’s a good idea.

Labor clearly thinks so, having already pledged to open another 50 urgent care clinics if re-elected on May 3.

The problem is they are forging ahead with absolutely no conclusive proof the huge amounts of money being spent on urgent care is actually resulting in less pressure on hospitals.

They will point to surveys of patients that show about 46 per cent of people who go to an urgent care clinic would have otherwise gone to an ED – but there’s no hospital data to back up the claim this has had an impact.

Worse, it still shows more than half of urgent care patients don’t think they would have gone to hospital, and perhaps would have been better served by a regular GP at far lower cost to the taxpayer.

Originally published as Big problem for Albanese as Medicare urgent care clinics cost five times more than a GP visit