Mark Butler seeks advice on out-of-pocket fee crackdown on greedy ‘out of control’ medical specialists

Health Minister Mark Butler has asked his department to explore ways to crackdown on rising out-of-pocket fees for medical specialists, admitting it was “getting out of control”.

Mr Butler on Friday declared a war on specialist fees, saying it would be a “second term priority” of the Albanese Government.

The Minister declared “all options are on the table”. Suggestions have included forcing non-GP specialists to publicly disclose costs or clawing back Medicare subsidies from specialists who charge extreme fees.

The government is already preparing to list all doctors’ fees on the nation’s Medical Costs Finder comparison website.

He said was also doing “everything I can every year” to keep health insurance premiums rises to a minumum, in response to a new Australian Medical Association report that warned the growth of private health insurance premiums was outstripping inflation, average weekly earnings and the indexation of the Medicare Benefits Schedule.

“The access and affordability for non-GP specialist care is getting out of control,” Mr Butler told reporters in Melbourne on Friday.

“I’ve made it really clear to doctors’ groups that from my point of view, all options to start to get that back under control are on the table.”

As an example, Mr Butler said some surgeons would not charge any out-of-pocked costs for a colonoscopy, while patients of another surgery might have to pay $800 from their own pockets.

“Our second term priority is specialist fees. We think it is completely a rip-off sometimes because there is no rhyme or reason to it. It’s just because some of them can,” he said.

Mr Butler said a previous voluntary system for doctors to publish their fees had “failed”.

Just 70 of the 11,000 registered specialists in Australia published their fees, the Minister said, vowing the government was preparing to list them all on the Medical Costs Finder website.

“What we’re doing, first of all, is to put some sunlight on this. I’m going to require doctors to publish all their fees,” he said.

“There was a voluntary system introduced by the former government, but it’s failed.

“Of the many, many thousands of specialists, literally only 70 published their fees. Not 70 per cent, 70 doctors published their fees. Everyone else is still keeping it secret.

“We’re going to publish them for them. We’ve got access to them. We’re going to put them all on the website.”

Bringing greater transparency to the costs had been an election commitment.

Mr Butler told ABC radio on Friday the government wanted to go further but was conscious of constitutional constraints.

The AMA’s annual Private Health Insurance Report Card warned Australians need better protection from rising private health insurance premiums, narrowing coverage and shady tactics.

The report card found many people were paying high premiums but were covered for fewer services.

The growth of private health insurance premiums is outstripping inflation, average weekly earnings and the indexation of the Medicare Benefits Schedule, it said.

“Private health insurance premiums are becoming less affordable for everyday Australians,” AMA president Danielle McMullen said.

“We’re seeing Australians drop their cover down to lower rates of health insurance cover, or in fact dropping their private health insurance altogether.”

Between 2008 and 2024, premiums climbed more than 100 per cent, while the Medicare Benefits Schedule indexation increased by less than 20 per cent.

Mr Butler said the report was a wake-up call to insurers, many of which he acknowledged were recording big increases in profits.

“I do everything I can every year to keep premium rises to the absolute minimum that is necessary to keep the thing viable,” he said.

Mr Butler also spruiked the government’s $8.5 billion plan to overhaul bulk-billing, which took effect on November 1, saying the official bulk billing rate for GP visits rose from 77.7 per cent to 81.2 per cent in the first month of the incentive scheme.

Under the plan Labor took to the election, GPs will receive an incentive payment for every single patient they bulk bill. Previously, the incentives only applied to children, pensioners, or people with concession cards.

All patients at the signed-up clinic must be bulk billed for it to receive a further incentive payment worth 12.5 per of the Medicare benefits schedule amount for the service.

However, early data has indicated the numbers of GPs signing on had lagged with 2902 signed up to the scheme — of which only 1227 weren’t previously bulk billing.

Shadow Health Minister Anne Ruston also criticised Labor in Senate estimates this week for failing to set measurable targets for the multi-billion dollar pledge, arguing the plan government were forcing taxpayers to place blind faith in was a significant cost.