Reducing patients’ out of pocket (OOP) costs is a major issue for the health policy agenda. But what are the chances that solutions to provide real relief for patients will emerge?
Tackling this wicked problem was a feature of Labor’s budget response and election campaign. But the Morrison Government does not seem galvanised by patients’ concerns and to date has offered only small reparations: a website that will provide information about specialists’ fees, and the slow unfreezing of the indexation of Medicare rebates (with no guarantee this will lead to a reduction in OOP costs).
This post was published (and continues) on Croakey and John Menadue: Pearls and Irritations.