Someone built a tool to find your local MP and contact them about saving Medicare Bulk Billing in seconds:
https://www.reddit.com/r/melbourne/comments/x148sr/i_built_a…
The tool itself: https://saveourmedicare.com.au
(disclaimer: that someone isn't me, but it sounds like a good idea to me).
Or even better, don't vote for the MP who does not care about it in the next election.
Or try to stay healthy, not that you visit there every weekend lol
Creator of saveourmedicare.com.au here
I am 100% an advocate for picking up the phone to call your MP to express your concerns, and the website does display the phone number and postal address to do so.
But I also understand that we all live very busy lives and I want to do something to help people start their journey, even if it is just one simple email.
I love the tool, thank you
As someone with very little interest in politics, do automated 'spammy' things like this really work and get taken into consideration, or is it pretty much this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pABNFV3QFVM
They actually have to be (or used to be…) bulk responded to by the electoral staff, so they should get a generic reply
electoral staff,
Ministerial staff. Electoral staff work for the electoral commission, which is independent of government and politics.
I meant electoral officers, and by the nature of the job it’s mostly non partisan
TIL: Electorate officers. The "electoral" staff I was referring to work for the various state and national Electoral Commissions, which have nothing to do with government apart from all things elections (AFAIK). There is also parliamentary staff. (MOP(S) Act employees)
As much as i hate Tony Abbott i was for the slight user pays ($5) system so that it wouldn't be open to abuse.
Admittedly yes, Medicare is not healthy, but given the amount of tax Australians are paying i feel the government should be looking at other areas to gain funding (coal, gas, iron ore, multinational tax dodging businesses).
Yep, plenty of ways to cut wastage on non essential things, and plenty of ways to get people to pay their share. We only get to sell our oil/gas/etc once, may as well make as much as possible out of it.
i feel the government should be looking at other areas to gain funding (coal, gas, iron ore, multinational tax dodging businesses).
Can't bite the hand that feeds them.
There's no money in Medicare being strengthened. But there is in a weaker/non-existent Medicare.
I remember part of Tony's campaign was to push co-pay hard but even when he was in power it got knocked back.
"Open to abuse" was a line used a lot by his campaign but I have yet to come across an article on how this is done. Is it actually abuse, or do politicians just hate people for using an essential service?
Bulk billing a decision for the service provider, not Medicare. In any event, the Medicare rebate remains available even where bulk billing is not provided.
The gap is kinda regressive isn't it? A $180 gap for a psychologist even with a mental health care plan is going to hurt a poor person a lot more than a wealthy person.
How can the cost for the consumption of a service be "regressive"?
Is the fact that everyone gets charged the same amount for food also regressive?
The problem is that the "recommended fee" is $267, according to the Australian Psychological Society. But according to Medicare, the fee should be $105.45, of which they pay 85% ($89.65).
So assuming the psychologist charges the recommended fee ($267), there's a gap of $177.35. (so your $180 gap is spot on)
My psychologist charges me a gap of $50, so are only getting paid $139.65 (assuming I got the correct Medicare code above).
People not seeking care early is going to increase health care costs later. It's a false economy.
How about they increase the Medicare rebates? They haven't increased in a long, long time. Practices have to keep up with costs and with everything except the rebates rising due to inflation it really makes it unsustainable. But surely everyone knows this by now? Apparently not.
Who is going to pay for that?
The Australian government pays for Medicare through the Medicare levy. Working Australians pay the Medicare levy as part of their income tax.
High income earners who don’t have an appropriate level of private hospital insurance also pay a Medicare levy surcharge.
To find out more, read about Medicare and tax
High income / high tax burden Australia cannot be asked to pay more.
Transitioning to a user pays system is a fairer option.
@tsunamisurfer: Fairer for who?
Co-pays disproportionately affect lower income earners for whom a co-pay represents a larger % of their discretionary income.
Co-payments essentially shift the tax burden from high income earners to low income earners, albeit without the branding of a "tax". I don't think that quite fits my definition of fair.
Correct me if I'm wrong, that not how its works, all our tax , medicare levy etc goes to a one big pool as income, then treasurer decide which department gets the funding based on election promises etc. So if health get $200B and decided to increase, funding for bulk billing, they need to cut down from somewhere else, ie budget for new hospital or surgeries etc. Hence getting anything from the government for free usually isn't a deal.
Imagine everything is bulkbilled, us ozb would visit GP for medical certificate instead of pay $20 to chemist, that will costing someone else some important medical treatment.
At the moment, winners are defense, due to Russia / China conflicts, Health comes later ;). You could ping the MP but MP need to come up with good story to sell to treasurer than getting millions of pings from cheap Ozb. Apparently security trumps the health. So good luck with increase the Medicare rebates.
@boomramada: I quoted Medicare from Medicare. You go argue with Medicare how Medicare works. Not me.
@Clear: Sorry, maybe I read it wrong, when you answered to , "Who is going to pay for that?", you said medicare, which I imply as it has to come from somewhere else within the health ie cut to something else which is not really a benefit, just shifting issues.
Hence, increase the Medicare rebates would be highly unlikely without cutting benefits from somewhere else in our health system.
Well, exactly what the campaign in the OP is about..
Not everyone here agrees.
When I created the app and shared with my friends, one of them asked:
"What is bulk billing"
This is a true blood Aussie that has lived here his whole life.
We cannot assume that everyone knows everything, people are living really busy lives.
What I am hoping the tool can do is to make it a lot more convenient, enabling those who are time-poor and still want to make a difference.
As if my local MP gives a f.
This is pointless. There is no money to allocate to doctors.
They should be happy with owning nothing after all they did not protect the vulnerable. In fact the procedures they used in hospitals lead to a massive increase in deaths. For gods sakes remdesivir! A product that failed trials (literally killed most of their trial participants) and was used as an experimental treatment…
product that failed trials (literally killed most of their trial participants)
Oh please do share the medical journal you obtained this information from…..
What's the point of this, to let your MP know you're not happy with it? Not like they don't know that already.
What do you think, the politicians are trying to scrap Medicare because they think that's what the people want? LOL they know people don't want this. They just don't care. There's nothing we can do about it either because Labor and Libs are in cahoots to share power.
I feel that this is the sentiment of most young Australians.
"My one vote wouldn't mean much"
"My MP wouldn't listen"
This apathetic behaviour in young Australians is what causing a lot of politicians to not focus on them. They need to win votes, and people who are usually the loudest take up most of the attention.
I just want to say that your vote & voice matters more than you think.
Can you actually speak to my point about MPs already knowing that we don't want Medicare to be cut?
Like I said, it seems useless to tell them something they already know. In Australia, Libs and Labor do whatever they want because there are no consequences. The two parties work together to ensure that only they can ever get elected, so they basically just share power between themselves. Doesn't matter how badly they screw up or how much worse things get, they both know they have a 50/50 chance of winning at the next election. In the meantime, there's just going to do whats convenient for them and their back pocket.
This will just come across as spam to a local member and most likely be ignored.
If you are truly passionate about this topic then personally get in contact with your MP and express your concerns.