Not sure I agree with the terms social / reacreational consult. People always come with something medical. Its never just a chat. Also check ups of well people to prevent future problems is an important part of health care.
Copayments will reduce servicing in a helpful and entirely appropriate way in the following areas:
1) Doctors with a short consult bulk bill model Usually these clinics have horrible service but are free to the patient. Quality of care depends on the doctor. Often what will happen is the doctor will only see one problem per day and you need to return for other issues. This is a legal and a legitimate business model. Millions of price conscious patients use thse clinics. The patient may save a few $ but the tax payer (Medicare) may pay 2-3 times the price for the same work.
2) Patients with little forward planning. My clinic treats everyone the same (quality / service) with pensioners bulk billed (price). There is no pressure for people to leave after 6 minutes. However because its free for them, there is no incentive for pensions to plan their visits. So they may get a flu vaccine in March, scripts in April, a referral in May, etc. With a bit of thought they could have combined this to a single visit.
There is an arguement that people may attend ED (expensive) instead of their GP (cheap) with terribel consequences on the budget.
The $500 Million in savings at $5 per consult saving translates to 100 Million consults. But there are apparaently 10 consults per person in Australia (200 million) so my maths says there should be at least $1 Billon in savings from the reduced rebate alone. Once you add the reduced number of consults, I think the savings are very understated in the budget. My gut feeling - More than enough to offset a few extra people attending ED.
At the very least it deserves a go. A bit like Operation Sovereign borders - too many people saying it wont work before trying it.
