Ballarat patients are being slugged high out-of-pocket costs for medical services.
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Half of Ballarat residents paid out an average of $132 in out of pocket costs for their health care during 2016/17 according to a new report from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.
Just over 82 per cent of consultations with GPs were bulk billed, but a third of patients were hit with out-of-pocket costs of an average of $20 to see their GP.
For one in five people, cost was a barrier to accessing medical treatment and they did not see a GP when they needed to.
Medicare paid out an average of $278.49 in benefits for each Ballarat resident, but patients seeing a medical specialist or undergoing imaging tests including MRIs had to pay a gap.
Almost three quarters of people with a medical condition requiring a specialist appointment paid an average $53 out of pocket, a similar amount to the almost one in five people undergoing imaging tests who were slugged $54 more than the medicare rebate.
For women visiting obstetricians, the average out of pocket cost was $143.
Melbourne GP and Australian Medical Association president Dr Tony Bartone said the figures showed the impact of several years of freezing Medicare patient rebates.
“The Medicare rebate has failed to keep up with the increasing costs of providing medical services,” Dr Bartone said.
“These growing out of pocket costs reflect the impact of Medicare indexation freeze policies implemented by successive governments, with Commonwealth funding to support patients who need to see their GP stagnating.
“The rebate, at the moment, bares no comparison to the cost of providing that care.”
The report also found almost a quarter of people in western Victoria did not go to the dentist or delayed dental treatment because of the cost.
Victorian health minister Jill Hennessy said if patients could not afford to go to the GP, many visited emergency departments which added to strain for hospitals, or avoided going to the doctor at all.
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