Perth Voice Interactive

THE president of the Maylands Autumn Centre says she doesn’t know how some members will pay for important health tests if prices rise, as predicted.

From July 1, providers of radiology and pathology services say they will no longer be able to bulk bill services because the Turnbull government is freezing their incentive payments.

The measure saves the government $650 million but providers say they won’t absorb the hit, and will instead pass on the cost to patients.

Sue Hayes says that’s a worry, as many of the centre’s oldest and most vulnerable clients are already clearly struggling to cope.

“You’d think they haven’t eaten for a week, the way they come here and wolf it down,” she told the Voice.

“We have some food at morning tea and they gorge themselves on food because I don’t think they are able to afford to eat at home.

“They eat and eat and eat, and if there’s anything left over they ask ‘can we take that home’ and you just go ‘yes’.

Ms Hayes and her partner are both pensioners and still trying to pay their mortgage. She says they budget strictly but after the steep rise in utility prices there’s not much left for food.

“Why don’t we cut their pay rises a little,” Ms Hayes says of federal politicians who voted for the bulk-billing changes.

She’s also furious with the Barnett government’s decision to raise car registration $99 a year.

“It’s getting harder and harder, and your pension goes up $7 and you think ‘that’s not even going to pay for one cup of coffee’ because that’s a fortnight, not a week.

Ms Hayes says an almost universal complaint from seniors is the federal government spends billions on foreign aid while they are hungry at home.

Health advocates warn the prospect of additional costs could deter people from taking life-saving tests, leading to long-term problems and higher costs as patients are admitted to hospital.

Janet Wood, whose mother needs regularly blood tests is outraged.

“My mother is on a pension and is understandably worried about these new changes,” she says. “Moreover, there has been no advertising about this proposed change to pathology, nothing in the newspapers or on television”.

The pathology sector says it will lead to job cuts if the number of tests falls.

Health minister Sussan Ley argues the bulk bill incentives for pathology have not been effective. She says since the Rudd Labor government introduced the incentive in 2009, the rate has only gone up one per cent, which would have been the same without the incentive.

by OTTOLINE SPEARMAN and STEVE GRANT