GetUp has launched a campaign following evidence that " a flood of doctors"' has abandoned bulk billing because the Turnbull Government refuses to lift the freeze on the GP Medicare rebate . It cites a Melbourne Herald Sun report which listed medical centres which have dropped bulk billing in various places of NSW, on Kangaroo Island , Melbourne , Hobart and Latitude 19 Health on Magnetic Island , Queensland , the latter now mixed billing .
Incidentally , two days before the federal election, the Shadow Minister for Health ,Catherine King, held a media conference in Townsville at which she pointed out Latitude 19 had just announced it was going to become a mixed biller because of rising costs , an important development in the red hot Medicare debate at the time . The sicko local media did not report this...and still has not caught up with this important local angle in its own bed pan patch of journalism, part of an important national issue , now strangely picked up by the Mexicans in Melbourne .
According to the Herald Sun report one medical centre which stopped bulk billing has exposed pensioners to an $18 gap fee and all other patients to a $38 gap .
GetUp is calling for a massive petition calling on the Turnbull Government to lift the freeze and prevent Australia from spiralling into an American - style health system where care only goes to those who can afford it .
