The Queensland premier has warned that the government’s changes to the Medicare rebate could lead to increased waiting times in hospitals, declaring his opposition to the federal government’s policy.
From Monday, the Medicare rebate will be reduced by $20 for consultations with GPs that are shorter than 10 minutes, with costs expected to be passed on to patients unless doctors take a pay cut.
Campbell Newman said the state health minister, Lawrence Springborg, had told his federal counterpart he was concerned about the change and it did not have the support of the Queensland Liberal National party government.
Newman said on the campaign trail on Thursday: “We’ve made great progress in terms of the way our emergency departments are operating, we’ve expressed concerns about this driving people to emergency departments so we don’t support it, and we have made that point to our federal counterparts.”
The federal government has argued the reduction would ensure reasonable consultation times and make Medicare sustainable.
When asked directly if he was saying the rebate reduction could mean more people going to emergency departments for health issues that could be treated by a GP, Newman responded: “That remains to be seen but that is our concern, yes.”
“We’ve made great progress in turning our hospitals around, we’re the first administration in Australia to be able to provide a surgical wait time guarantee, that’s something that can only be achieved with a strong, stable team,” he said.
The regulation was made by Peter Dutton before he was replaced as the federal health minister by Sussan Ley and is set to be disallowed by the Senate when it sits next month.
Newman’s comments came as the Australian Medical Association called on the prime minister to stop the regulation before it comes into effect.
