Medicare co-payment a challenge for rural patients

When it comes to obtaining medical care, those living in rural areas already face significant geographical challenges. And according to the National Rural Health Alliance (NRHA), a seven dollar GP co-payment for patients currently being bulk-billed would have particularly severe consequences for people in rural and remote areas.

Rural and very remote residents currently have higher rates of potentially preventable hospital admission that their city counterparts: 2,600 per 100,000 in major cities compared with 6,430 per 100,000 in very remote areas. The NRHA believes that this gap would widen if a co-payment further impaired access to doctors, pathology and medicines.

These concerns are echoed by the Doctors Reform Society, which states that Australians living in rural and regional areas suffer major health disadvantages, with disease rates and life expectancy being worse than those in the cities and access to specialist services often being very poor.

Some of the additional assistance required may be in the area of education and preventative health, though, with the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare reporting that people in regional and remote areas were more likely than those in major cities to report an acute or chronic injury, to drink alcohol in quantities risking harm in the short term, or to be overweight or obese.