Submission to the Senate Inquiry on Medicare

This submission to the Senate Medicare inquiry addresses the impact of proposed changes to Medicare in the Tasmanian context. It does not attempt to address all aspects of the Government’s proposed Medicare package but rather focuses on the significant implications for low income earners in Tasmania with the decline in bulk-billing and rising co-payments for GPs. Anglicare submits that the proposed package does not provide adequate incentives to increase either the numbers of GPs outside major metropolitan areas or the rates of bulk-billing in areas of significant disadvantage.