Bulk-billing doctors surgeries are reportedly turning away the vulnerable in the community, with children and the mentally ill most at risk.
As the rebates fall in real terms, frozen at thirty-seven dollars and sixty cents, bulk-billing surgeries are churning through patients at up to ten per hour which earns them three hundred and eighty dollars.
Doctors that see four patients an hour, will only earn one hundred and fifty two dollars an hour, a rate that could see them losing money.
Dr Bastian Seidel commented on GPs that recently announced they were leaving the small town of St Helens in rural Tasmania. “Why are they leaving?” he said.“Let’s be realistic about it. It’s a rural community. There is a high rate of disability and unemployment. Everyone expects to be bulk billed”