Wyndham’s sick residents will be among those hardest hit by last week’s federal budget if the government goes ahead with its plan to make people pay $7 to visit a doctor.
Figures from the National Health Performance Authority reveal that the majority of Wyndham and Hobsons Bay residents are relying on bulk-billed GP clinics to provide them with healthcare.
The authority’s figures show that in 2012-13, 91 per cent of doctors’ appointments in the South Western Melbourne Medicare Local (SWMML)area, which covers Wyndham and Hobsons Bay, were bulk-billed.
SWMML chief executive Gaylene Coulton has warned that introducing a $7 co-payment for GP visits and other health services from July 2015 would directly affect the people who can afford it the least and that people may put off seeing a doctor.
“Best practice evidence shows that primary health care is the most economical way to manage the high cost of health service delivery,” she said.
Wyndham Vale single mum Kerry Arch, who runs a national support group for single parents, said the co-payment would make visiting the doctor too expensive for some families.
“We will have single parents who are living on such a tight budget that they can’t afford to take their children to the doctor.”
State Western Metropolitan Greens MP Colleen Hartland said the co-payment would be detrimental to low-income earners.
“The GP fee will discourage early action and lead to sicker communities, and higher health costs.”
