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Speaker 1: My name is Lily Maddon and I'm a proud Arunda

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Speaker 1: Bungelung Calcoutin woman from Gadighl country. The Daily oz acknowledges

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Speaker 1: that this podcast is recorded on the lands of the

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Speaker 1: Gadighl people and pays respect to all Aboriginal and torrest

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Speaker 1: Rate island and nations. We pay our respects to the

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Speaker 1: first peoples of these countries, both past and present.

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Speaker 2: Good morning and welcome to the Daily os. It's Wednesday,

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Speaker 2: the twenty fourth of August. I'm Zara, I'm Sam.

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Speaker 3: We know it's never been harder to see a doctor.

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Speaker 3: It's never been more expensive to see a doctor.

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Speaker 2: Now. We have bugged billing in this country to help

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Speaker 2: foot the bill for our GP visits, but a perfect

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Speaker 2: storm of policy and rising prices has resulted in the

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Speaker 2: gap growing and that means we're having to pay more

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Speaker 2: to see a GP. We'll tell you what you need

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Speaker 2: to know in the deep dive. But Fir Sam, what's

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Speaker 2: making headlines this morning?

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Speaker 3: All eyes in the the TDA office were glued to

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Speaker 3: the television's at twelve ten pm yesterday, where Prime Minister

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Speaker 3: Anthony Alberanzi released the legal advice he received from the

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Speaker 3: Solicitor General about Scott Morrison's Secret Ministry appointments. The advice

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Speaker 3: said that while Morrison was quote validly appointed, the principles

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Speaker 3: of responsible government were fundamentally undermined.

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Speaker 2: Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has backed calls for a higher

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Speaker 2: intake of skilled migrants into Australia. During a press conference yesterday,

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Speaker 2: Andrews said that he and New South Wales Premier Dominique

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Speaker 2: Perrete had written to Prime Minister Anthony Alberzi calling for

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Speaker 2: more skilled migrants to be welcomed into Australia, saying this

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Speaker 2: was critically important.

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Speaker 3: Over to America now and the US government has recovered

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Speaker 3: over three hundred top secret documents from former President Donald

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Speaker 3: Trump's mar Lago home. According to a report from The

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Speaker 3: New York Times. The initial documents retrieved in January included

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Speaker 3: over one hundred and fifty classified files, which were portly

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Speaker 3: helped launch the investigation that led to the raid of

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Speaker 3: Trump's home earlier this month.

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Speaker 2: And Today's good News, new research from Japanese scientists suggest

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Speaker 2: dogs can cry tears of happiness when reunited with their

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Speaker 2: owner after a period of separation.

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Speaker 3: I knew it.

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Speaker 2: The study found that tear volume in dogs In.

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Speaker 3: How is his Good News?

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Speaker 2: The study found that tear volume in dogs increased significantly during.

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Speaker 3: A re no No, No, keep going. I'll read it.

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Speaker 3: It claims to be the first study to investigate the

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Speaker 3: relationship between emotional arousal and tear volume in animals. It's beautiful.

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Speaker 3: It's almost like the human beings, Zara. We're having a

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Speaker 3: chat about this the other day, about our relationship to

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Speaker 3: our gps, and specifically, in your case, whether you've gone

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Speaker 3: to see one lately and what is perhaps getting in

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Speaker 3: the way of you not being as frequent a visitor

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Speaker 3: to your GP as you once were.

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Speaker 2: I've been on a GP journey. It has been a

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Speaker 2: long journey, and my two things that I've been trying

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Speaker 2: to find are a female GP and a GP who

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Speaker 2: bulk bills. And I mean, I can talk about it

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Speaker 2: for days, but it has basically become an impossible task.

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Speaker 2: And it seems like this is something a lot of

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Speaker 2: other people, especially young people, are dealing with at the moment.

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Speaker 3: This type of situation surely isn't that new. Why are

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Speaker 3: we talking about it this week?

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Speaker 2: Because of what the federal Health Minister Mark Butler came

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Speaker 2: out and said over the weekend he made some pretty

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Speaker 2: alarming comments about access to healthcare services in this country.

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Speaker 3: We know it's never been harder to see a doctor,

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Speaker 3: it's never been more expensive to see a doctor.

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Speaker 2: Butler's comments were actually based on a survey looking at

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Speaker 2: the business practices of gps. He found that twenty two

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Speaker 2: percent of Australian gps who responded had recently changed their

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Speaker 2: payment model away from total bulk billing. When I asked

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Speaker 2: the same quest last year, only ten percent of respondent

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Speaker 2: said they had recently changed their billing model. So that's

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Speaker 2: a pretty significant change. Yeah, twelve percent in only twelve months.

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Speaker 2: Pretty steep. Remind me what is bulk billing? Okay? So,

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Speaker 2: bulk billing is a payment system that lets ossies like

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Speaker 2: you and I enrolled in Medicare access some healthcare services

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Speaker 2: at no cost or at a reduced cost. It was

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Speaker 2: designed to make healthcare more affordable for Australians by paying

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Speaker 2: for some or all of their medical visits.

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Speaker 3: But visits to the doctor aren't always free, as we

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Speaker 3: very well know, the whole health insurance industry is based

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Speaker 3: on that. What is the gap payment? Okay?

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Speaker 2: So when Medicare covers part of a medical visit, it

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Speaker 2: means that you have to front up some of the

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Speaker 2: bill yourself.

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Speaker 3: So this is what we call the.

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Speaker 2: Gap payment, and it means that you can pay an

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Speaker 2: out of pocket amount to cover the difference between the

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Speaker 2: amount that the doctor charges and what Medicare pays for.

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Speaker 2: And when Mark Butler spoke about this last week, he

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Speaker 2: said that the average out of pocket payment or this

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Speaker 2: gap payment, is now more than what Medicare covers and

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Speaker 2: very significantly. This is the first time in Medicare's thirty

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Speaker 2: eight year history that this has happened.

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Speaker 3: And do we know why this is happening.

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Speaker 2: Well, we spoke to the vice president of the College

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Speaker 2: of General Practitioners. His name is doctor Bruce Willett, and

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Speaker 2: he gave us two key reasons. I'll give you one.

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Speaker 3: Guess what The first is cost a living me very much.

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Speaker 2: Related rising costs, so inflation and secondly, fixed Medicare contribution.

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Speaker 3: I was going to guess that.

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Speaker 2: I knew it was rolling off the tongue, So rising

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Speaker 2: costs and fixed Medicare contributions. Now, while these are obviously

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Speaker 2: two different factors, they've actually worked together to create the

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Speaker 2: situation that we're in now. Kind of this perfect storm.

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Speaker 2: So let's take rising prices first. Now, this relates directly

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Speaker 2: to inflation, which has meant that businesses across the country

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Speaker 2: and the world have had to raise prices to be

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Speaker 2: able to survive. And certainly GP practices aren't immune from this.

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Speaker 2: I mean, my mum runs a GP practice and she

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Speaker 2: has spoken at dinner a number of times about how

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Speaker 2: expensive it is getting to run a practice when prices

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Speaker 2: just keep rising. But if we put that issue to

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Speaker 2: one side, there is also the contributions made by Medicare,

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Speaker 2: and the problem with that is that they have remained

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Speaker 2: the same. So rising prices contributions by medicare staying the same.

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Speaker 2: That leaves us with a bigger gap. And why isn't

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Speaker 2: Medicare stepping up and filling that gap? Okay, So this

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Speaker 2: is where it gets political. It can be traced back

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Speaker 2: to twenty thirteen when the federal Labor government at the

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Speaker 2: time introduced a Medicare rebate freeze. Now, this meant that

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Speaker 2: the contribution from Medicare stopped going up despite costs naturally

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Speaker 2: rising with inflation. The Coalition were voted into government, they

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Speaker 2: said that they would keep the Medicare freeze in place

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Speaker 2: for GPS until twenty eighteen. After that time, the contributions

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Speaker 2: did go up, but with inflation soaring especially this year,

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Speaker 2: things have only gotten worse, with doctors and other practitioners

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Speaker 2: paying even more to keep their businesses alive. When we

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Speaker 2: spoke to doctor Willett, he said that to address this problem,

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Speaker 2: the federal government has to invest more money in the

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Speaker 2: Medicare rebate system. He explained that without this, other health

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Speaker 2: facilities like hospitals would be under greater demand, which would

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Speaker 2: lead to even bigger costs when people present to the

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Speaker 2: emergency room instead of GPS. The Albanezi government will hand

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Speaker 2: down their first budget since being elected in October of

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Speaker 2: this year, and they've already flagged a major investment for Medicare.

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Speaker 3: The thing about this as a news story is that

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Speaker 3: it feels so relevant to everybody. We're all in the

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Speaker 3: health system. So we put up an Instagram post and

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Speaker 3: the comments section goes wild.

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Speaker 2: Someone said, I've called nine different doctors in my area.

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Speaker 2: All are now either non bulk billed or so booked

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Speaker 2: out that you can't get an appointment for weeks. Something

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Speaker 2: needs to change. Another I've just moved to regional New

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Speaker 2: South Wales and nobody is offering bulk billing and most

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Speaker 2: medical centers won't even take new patients. Someone commented, being

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Speaker 2: on the poverty line and having a chronic condition has

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Speaker 2: never felt worse. From another perspective, I work at a

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Speaker 2: bulk billing GP. I heard on the grapevine that the

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Speaker 2: clinic barely makes enough to stay afloat, so we'll probably

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Speaker 2: end up charging a gap fee like most other clinics

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Speaker 2: have had to do.

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Speaker 3: It's been really insightful hearing your thoughts on this. We've

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Speaker 3: put up a poll on our Instagram and it's going

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Speaker 3: to be in the show notes of this episode as

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Speaker 3: well to try and get some data around how young

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Speaker 3: people and all of the TDA audience are feeling about

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Speaker 3: GPS and bulk billing right now. If you have a minute,

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Speaker 3: click that link, and it's only a couple of questions.

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Speaker 3: It'll help us understand more about how these rising prices

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Speaker 3: are impacting you, and we're going to use those results

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Speaker 3: in our reporting in the future.

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Speaker 2: Thanks for joining us on the Daily OS until tomorrow,

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Speaker 2: have a brilliant day.