Transcript – Shadow Assistant Minister for Regional Health – Dr Anne Webster MP, Member for Mallee – Interview with Prue Bentley, ABC Victoria – Thursday 6 September 2024 – 5:05pm

BENTLEY:

Our colleagues at ABC Mildura – Swan Hill, Ailsa Kennedy and Tamara Clarke have been looking into this. They have found that there is a GP clinic in regional Victoria in Mildura, in fact, which is charging patients a $220 to $330 annual fee to access bulk billing.

Doctor Anne Webster is the Member for Mallee Anne Webster. Good afternoon. Does this concern you ?

WEBSTER:

Hi, Prue, and just to take on your sayings, I think it doesn’t pass the pub test. The fact of the matter – I just had to throw that in there – I think that bulk billing is about providing a no-cost health service. That’s what it was set up to do. And it would seem that under Labor – well, it’s very clear that under Labor – that bulk billing is collapsing. And it’s been never been harder or more expensive to see a doctor.

And I have to say, if you would allow me to just set the scene. The National Rural Health Alliance reports that regional Australians are dying 12 to 16 years earlier than their city cousins. That’s a disgrace in and of itself. It is really such an issue out in the country to actually have GPs in the first place, and they are finding it really hard to provide the services. I was talking to a couple today who are saying that cost of living is impacting their costs as well to provide the services. In fact, one GP clinic said to me, they’re going backwards. There’s one GP in that clinic and bulk billing is becoming unaffordable for GPs.

BENTLEY:

The rebates on Medicare have been chronically low, according to the AMA, for years, including the decade that the Coalition was in government. Does your government not have a question to answer on this too?

WEBSTER:

Well, I think at the moment the relevance is that Labor have been in charge for the last two and a half years and I’m pleased that the bulk billing incentive was tripled. But it’s only for concession holders, pensioners and children under 16 years. Let me declare, I’m married to a GP and he has bulk billed for the whole 46 years of his clinic life and therefore is in high demand. Of course I know how difficult it is to manage all of those costs, but on the flip side, we have to remember people are going through a cost of living crisis themselves. They’re making choices about whether they heat or eat (or cool as it is, today, really necessary).

So the out of pocket expenses to see a doctor is an extra cost that people are struggling to pay. That is one of the reasons why we die earlier. And we have, you know, higher rates of morbidity and mortality in the regions.

BENTLEY:

We are coming up to a federal election – will we be seeing the Coalition policy on this, doing more for bulk billing?

WEBSTER:

I have to say in terms of ensuring that doctors are acting within the rules, because that’s the issue today, is that we actually did put in place a strengthening of compliance powers for the Professional Services Review, which is the relevant body that oversees compliance for Medicare. The funding for that body was increased 50 per cent and we doubled their budget to ensure they were able to investigate and address any inappropriate practices by GPs.

BENTLEY:

So would you call this an inappropriate practice, Dr Webster?

WEBSTER:

I’ve read through your article this morning and I see that the Department of Health have said a practice cannot charge an annual membership, administration or registration fee to guarantee a patient bulk billed services as it would be a breach of the Health Insurance Act.

If the Department of Health is saying that, what is the Minister now going to do about it? Is he going to do that test in court about charging membership fees, which the medical billing legal expert, Margaret Fahey, was speaking about today, that previous court cases have occurred and then it’s established that clinics are not allowed to charge additional fees when they’re bulk billing.

The technical aspect of that is for that particular service, when a doctor is bulk billing you for a particular item or service, they can’t add fees to that if they’re bulk billing. But this is about a membership fee. The Department says it’s not okay: Well, it’s up to Labor to take this potentially to court and to see whether it’s going to stand the test in the court.

BENTLEY:

If this practice was stamped out and the GP practice in your electorate said, look, we now can no longer afford to operate, that would be another GP clinic in Mildura – we’ve had many recently fold, certainly the high profile TriStar Medical Clinics folded – that would leave people in Mildura without healthcare in huge numbers, wouldn’t it, Anne Webster?

WEBSTER:

Oh look, the situation, as I said earlier, is dire. We are desperate for workforce. So the Coalition will be taking policies to the next election, which have already been developed – many of them have already been developed. I can’t talk about them now, of course. However they’re done and need to address particularly regional health workforce. That has certainly been my work as the Shadow Assistant Minister for Regional Health over the last 18 months.  I’m very, very keen to see the situation turn around.

BENTLEY:

When do you expect we’ll be able to see the detail of that policy?

WEBSTER:

Well, I’m not in cabinet Prue, but you know …

BENTLEY:

.. Ballpark? …

WEBSTER:

.. so, No, I can’t tell you. That will be absolutely up to the Coalition leadership. I’m sure Peter Dutton has a time frame on all of that.

BENTLEY:

Okay. Well, we will be looking out for it with interest. Anne Webster, thank you very much for your time.

WEBSTER:

Thanks Prue.