[TriciaR]

Bulk billing for lab tests​

Hello SDC community! One of our members, who would prefer to remain anonymous, would like to share this information about bulk billing. Our member said that if she did not have bulk billing, it would have cost her over $600 for the various blood tests they had to do for her.

 

[maurice wildish]

Pathology is a marvelous creation, saves many lives and much mis diagonisis, ! it is a huge saving for us older generation, and it is really necessary for this service to continue to be supported by govt, it saves millions on dollars in hospital costs, it is my sincere hope that the up coming budget does not abolish this benefit

 

[Wandiwa]

My last PSA test went from free last year to $45 this year.

 

[Luckyus]

My last PSA test went from free last year to $45 this year.

Robin Hood's family, robbing Bastards.

 

[Scaveola]

Pathology companies only get paid for the first six tests. So if ypur

 

[Scaveola]

So if you have a lot more tests they get nothing. Also there are some tests that can only be ordered at certain intervals eg annually so you may get a bill for these if the doctor orders them more often.

 

[Rob44]

Australia needs a decent taxpayer-funded National Health Service. Or even funded from a levey on wages with contributions also from employers as per the UK in the 1950-1960s. That means increasing the top level of income tax and building a better graduated tax system or imposing wage-related levies. Given Australia as it is, that is political death for any politician who advocates for it.

You get what you vote for.

 

[Scaveola]

Medicare covers a lot of medical costs. At its onset it was never intended to cover 100 percent medical costs. Unfortunately the government froze the Medicare rebates for 10 years making bulk billing unsustainable for many GPs. The recent decision to classify GP contractors as employees with retrospective payroll tax due will send many practices broke and many will close when the payroll tax amnesties end soon. Most GPs are contractors who have to pay their own super and insurances and have no benefits like sick leave, Holiday pay and parental leave. Bulk billing will become less available and fees will increase if payroll tax has to be paid. This will cause more patients to flock to emergency and worsen that situation. The UK NHS is not a good system as there are long waits for treatment x rays etc. A lot of UK GPs apply to come here.

 

[Rob44]

Yes. The UK NHS has gone to the pack since I was a young'un. As for what is happening in the USA sorry Australia.....

There have been 3 generations of medical personnel covering 3 countries in my immediate family so I have some awareness of past, present and the future. It's not a healthy future for many.

 

[Gsr]

The government needs to make sure that all government funded pathology services continue to offer bulk billing, at least to low income earners. Like the public hospital system there needs to be an income based criteria for accessing these services. Anyone with high incomes should have to pay for their own health care costs, even if they are treated in the public system. Too many of the wealthy, including politicians, are using the public system and paying nothing. This is why these services are going broke and considering stopping bulk billing. This is why the waiting lists for public hospitals are so long. People who can afford to pay for private health cover should do so and should use the private hospitals and free up public funded services for low income earners and welfare recipients. This should not be an option, if they want to use the public system they should pay the costs. If bulk billing ceases there will be more people who won’t be able to afford the tests they need, they won’t get the treatments they need and we will end up with so many people with no quality of life and severe medical issues the costs to governments for the extra treatments and hospitalisation needed will far outweigh the cost of keeping bulk billing available to low income earners.

 

[RealityCheck]

Our government-mandated, monopoly insurer, aka Medicare, is an underinsurance scam.

The government take our Medicare levy (& other taxes) and give less of it back (in patient rebates to providers) every year.

No one has a right to demand a private business take a loss just to make a politician look good who "promised" a discount which they then failed to fund.

I've written before in this group that Medicare has already fallen over and we live in a post-Medicare world. You can't find a G.P appointment, the ambulance is frequently delayed, and you can't get a hospital bed when you really need one. And it's not any of their fault!

Hold ALL the politicians to account for this tragedy!

 

[Rob44]

The guts of the problem is that there are too few doctors. That is partly the medical profession's fault; extremely expensive medical courses being available only to the top 1% of those studying at school before going to university medical school. Secondly there is too little financial support for university students as a group which adds to that problem. Our universities now have to generate a huge amount of money from university fees, which is why around 40 000 university staff lost their jobs when Covid was allowed into Australia in 2019-20. 24% of university income, which was about $36 billion in total at the time I believe, came from international students who seemed interested in mainly some sort of financial/business types of study and hoped for PR a couple of years later. Most of them went back home when Covid was loosed upon us.

We don't have enough doctors in our public hospitals and this is a very serious problem in rural hospitals that depend very much on locum doctors/surgeons who visit the hospital for a few days at a time and at considerable expense to us all. Such hospitals, as with many organisations in Australia, seem to be top-heavy with administrators these days.

It is not the rich taking the place of the poor in our public health/hospital system. The rich also pay taxes that provide our public health system as well as having their own private health fund, which is accessible also to public hospitals to pay for their treatment.

 

[constantpain666]

Well I'm screwed if they stop bulk billing. I'm lucky if I don't have at least numerous blood tests per fortnight or each week. For my list of specialists if I can't have the tests, I can't see the specialist. But it wouldn't surprise me if bulk billing stopped. Those who are wealthly seem to be able to get away with bulk billing, while everyone else can't. Just something else that becomes a problem. Can't pull additional funds out of what's left over.

 

[Rob44]

Well I'm screwed if they stop bulk billing. I'm lucky if I don't have at least numerous blood tests per fortnight or each week. For my list of specialists if I can't have the tests, I can't see the specialist. But it wouldn't surprise me if bulk billing stopped. Those who are wealthly seem to be able to get away with bulk billing, while everyone else can't. Just something else that becomes a problem. Can't pull additional funds out of what's left over.

Never mind: theTasmanian Liberal government is going to spend at least $750 000 000 of our taxpayers' money building a new footie stadium for the AFL, and the thugs and bogans of Tasmania just lurv the idea