Medicare rebate cut by $20 - from $37.05 to $16.95 for under 10 min consult

The Fence said:
Your usual negative outlook has missed the lovely bit of satire above methinks.:rolleyes:

Cheer up old son!:)
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must have

tax reform will come up repeatedly now that there is no money left in the kitty and the economy is stalling. tinkering with GST on online purchases is a sideshow
 
Perp said:
It may not be called a "veto", but I don't think you're in a position to point fingers at Beanie Girl's "poor understanding"; I think she's correct in substance and you're... not so much. :p

Delegated legislation - regulations, secondary legislation, etc. - is extensively used, whereby the power to make specific provisions with regards to implementation of an Act is delegated to a non-Parliamentary person or body, perhaps the Minister or the Executive (Cabinet plus the GG). This obviously gives the ruling party tremendous power to influence important details of implementing policy - such as the amounts specified for Medicare rebates.

As a check on such power, the Parliament has two ways of redressing what it sees as unreasonable pieces of delegated legislation, which are outlined here on the Australian Parliament House website.

So in summary, yes, the Government can unilaterally change the amounts designated for the Medicare levies.

But Parliament can review this change and disallow it.
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Either the rebate changes require a bill, or they don't. Quite an easy question. One that Beanie Girls article says is required.
 
Ed Barton said:
Either the rebate changes require a bill, or they don't. Quite an easy question. One that Beanie Girls article says is required.
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The rebate changes don't require a bill; it can be done via delegated legislation. Where does Beanie Girl say a bill is required? I see her clearly referring to "regulatory change", which is perfectly accurate. The linked article from The Guardian doesn't mention a bill, either, that I can see.
 
Ausprop said:
I love this mentality...

Pay a GP less than $500k? Oh no gosh we need the best of care. Pay peanuts you get monkeys blah blah blah.

oh you want me to pay a few bucks to see them? no no, the 'governmentt' can cop that one.

it's easy to leave a generous tip when you have someone elses purse
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I'd think a rural doctor in his own practice could make half a million per year just from the simple fact that he/she has so many patients. Nothing to do with being on anyone else's purse. Doctor to patient ratios are huge compared to the city.

I'm only speculating here as always. I have no idea what a doctor in the bush makes, but the one I go to has full books, has em going in and out all day every day every 10 minutes, so he'd be making more money than he'd know how to spend and I reckon that's great.


See ya's.
 
That's what I don't get. All the appointments at my doctor's office are 10 minutes long unless you request (and pay for) a longer appointment. So by definition, all appointments will be less than or equal to the 10 minutes and all patients at the practice I go to will only get the $16.95 rebate. Crazy!

I already hate going to the doctor. Half the time I only go there to get told I have a cold and get a dr's certificate as it's required by work, otherwise I really wouldn't bother. Such a waste of time and now more expensive too!
 
Haven't read the whole thread but some gps may decide to charge a higher gap given the rebate is lessened for short consult. Or wouldn't some gps just spend 11mins or more with each patient and then be elligible for the higher rebate.....yes this means they will see less people per day.
 
luckyone said:
That's what I don't get. All the appointments at my doctor's office are 10 minutes long unless you request (and pay for) a longer appointment. So by definition, all appointments will be less than or equal to the 10 minutes and all patients at the practice I go to will only get the $16.95 rebate. Crazy!

I already hate going to the doctor. Half the time I only go there to get told I have a cold and get a dr's certificate as it's required by work, otherwise I really wouldn't bother. Such a waste of time and now more expensive too!
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Most workplaces and award agreements allow a statutory declaration just as much as a sick certificate - this is something the Liberal Party was trying to solve with the $7 co-payment.

The prolific use of doctors for sick notes is an enormous drain on the health budget and system.
 
Our medicare system is great, if it is being utilised the right way. The problem is, it's being abuse by both doctor and patients. From government point of view, they just looking at numbers and the numbers are not good to sustain it.

I feel sorry for the younger generation. We enjoyed cheap housing, education and health care system. The next generation would also have to afford aged care as well.
 
Below is a strange doozer. Doesn't seem to be very efficient.

Medicare Changes for GP Care Plans
posted Jan 1, 2015, 3:09 AM by Kialla Medical [ updated Jan 2, 2015, 8:22 PM ]

"The Australian Government has decided to limit the services that Medicare will reimburse to patients having a GP Management Plan or Team Care Arrangement. These are performed as an important part of caring for chronic illnesses (diabetes, arthritis etc).

Neither the patient nor the doctor can be reimbursed for providing any extra medical service (providing unrelated prescriptions, checking a skin lesion, checking your sore throat etc) on the same day as a Care Plan.

Therefore you will have to make a separate appointment on a different day for any extra services (or pay for the extra service (at least $70), with Medicare contributing nothing)"
 
IF...............

near half of families pay no net tax, how can the other half sustain a medical system while even they pay 2% of their taxable income ?

In Germany I recall, state based med tax is around 7 %.

ta
rolf
 
Rolf Latham said:
IF...............

near half of families pay no net tax, how can the other half sustain a medical system while even they pay 2% of their taxable income ?

In Germany I recall, state based med tax is around 7 %.

ta
rolf
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Rolf, you are onto the same thoughts as my comments a few days ago.
I don't recall the figures, but something like two thirds or three quarters of Australian households are income tax neutral or on benefits, leaving a minority to pay all the income taxes, Medicare levy and other levies introduced recently. The high-income earners get hit up for everything, every time. I'm in the former group and keep missing out on all the extra levies, but I still believe it is unproductive to keep charging only a minority all the time rather than share the pain evenly across everyone. I think the only revenues that almost every household pays are fuel excise and gst.
 
Rolf Latham said:
IF...............

near half of families pay no net tax, how can the other half sustain a medical system while even they pay 2% of their taxable income ?

In Germany I recall, state based med tax is around 7 %.

ta
rolf
Click to expand...

I am not sure whether the percentages are correct but it has to do with the outworking of a percentage compared with the absolute number it produces.

The rich may pay a small percentage but it is a big figure compared with the poor paying a supposedly big percentage in income tax but is actually net reliant on welfare from cradle to grave.
 
Rolf Latham said:
what are GST or similar taxes around the world.

i recall Germany and UK > 15 %

ta
rolf
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In Canada the GST is 5%, but some provinces instead have HST (Harmonized sales tax)...which is what our province has.

We pay 15% HST on most things, except groceries (junk food is taxed)

The price you see on our tags, are not the final price...you add HST to it.

We also get a GST rebate. Each family can claim one, but after a certain income, it is clawed back.
It's about $165 per adult, $105 child, paid quarterly.
 
Just read an article saying "You may not be able to afford to get sick: Lobby group predicts that Medicare shift will mean $100 doctor visits by 2016"

Let me play devil's advocate here and use my intellect to argue the other way. (Intrinsic Value, Fence, D.T, Hoffy, Rolf and others are gonna love me for what I'm about to say ;))

We property owners want our PPORs and IPs to go up and up in capital value and want the market to pay as much as they can afford for our properties, right?
Whatever the market can stomach, the higher the price the better.
In that way, we act like small businesses pimping our properties to the highest bidders/renters, renovating it to achieve as much capital gain as possible in the shortest possible time.

Properties in blue-chip suburbs in Melbourne and Sydney are much sought after and unaffordable

Why should health care which is much sought after 'be affordable'?
Why shouldn't GPs who are small businesses charge as much as the market will bear? $100, $200 per visit for the simplest or the most complex of reasons - cough, cold, prescription renewal, cancer, stroke, who cares?

Charge as much as the market will bear!

The inefficient GPs who depend on govt subsidies (medicare rebates) should go bust. They're like our inefficient car manufacturers, right?

Let the free market reign. No subsidies, no rebates. User pays.
No government intervention, no regulation.
There is no right or wrong in the market. It just is.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ean-100-doctor-visits-2016.html#ixzz3OIkfBlUD
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