Going to doctor might be cheaper

Press, 14 September 1988, Page 11

Going to doctor might be cheaper

By

SARAH SANDS,

health reporter

Cheaper doctors’ fees balanced by increased prescription charges are likely to be among big changes to primary health care proposed by the Government.

A package covering the future of primary health care is before the Cabinet now and an announcement by the Minister of Health, Mr Caygill, is expected later this month.

Mr Caygill has been working on the package since about April. He told the annual meeting of the Templeton Hospital Parents’ Association in May that he was committed to making visits to the doctor cheaper.

“All that the Government, is paying to assist the working adult going to the doctor is $1.25. All the rest of the cost is being borne by the patient —

we have to get that $1.25 back to a reasonable level of assistance.”

A confidential Treasury paper on primary health care leaked to the General Practitioner Society, published in its August journal, recommends two options for doctors’ fees: Holding the cost an adult visit to $lO, or setting user fees at one-third of the total consultation fee.

If either option were adopted, the Government would need to find another $lO3 to $133 million, and the paper suggests this could be done by redistributing existing primary benefits. About $lOO million could be saved by in-

creasing prescription charges from $1 an item to between $3 and $5.50 an item, the paper said. The primary healthcare package is also expected to announce changes to the accident compensation scheme to cover-sickness as well as accident-related disabilities.

Mr Caygill has previously acknowledged that it is unfair that those incapacitated by illness receive lower benefits than those with injuries. The package will also include the Government’s decision on the Gibbs task force oh hospitals and related services, which reported in April.

It is believed the proposals are likely to shelve the main recommendation of the Gibbs report — to separate the funding and providing of hospital services — and instead favour the devolution of responsibilities to area health boards. Whatever is recommended in the package, sources close to Mr Caygill say it is unlikely that changes will „ occur quickly.

The primary healthcare package deals with the structure of the health system and the details of benefits, and although concepts were simple, the administration would be complex, said the source.