The Government’s Finally Scrapping The $7 GP Co-Payment Policy

In a press conference at Parliament House this afternoon, Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Health Minister Peter Dutton announced the government was abandoning its controversial $7 GP co-payment policy. In a joint press release handed out just prior to the press conference, Abbott and Dutton said “the $7 Medicare co-payment measure announced in the 2014-15 Budget will no longer proceed”.

According to the press release, “the Government will instead implement a package of measures that will strengthen Medicare and help make it sustainable,” including an optional $5 co-payment for adults below the retirement age at the discretion of individual doctors. Bulk billing for children, pensioners, veterans and people in nursing homes will remain unchanged, but “Medicare rebates for common GP consultations will be reduced by $5” for everyone else. As several reporters at the press conference have pointed out already, cutting the rebate paid to doctors may effectively force doctors to charge patients up-front anyway.

PM Abbott and Health Minister Dutton’s press release on dumping of co-payment #triplejhack pic.twitter.com/WGCWWor3G5

— Alice Workman (@workmanalice) December 9, 2014

Dutton said that the reworked policy “addresses many of the concerns that the crossbenchers have raised with us in the last few months”, a statement that will come under scrutiny as crossbenchers react to the news.

The savings from the reworked health measures are still slated for the Medical Research Future Fund, which the $7 co-payment was sold as raising money for. We’ll have more on the story as it develops.

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Feature image via ABC News 24.