#StopTheCoP

In the Federal Budget announced just over two weeks ago, the Abbott government has announced cuts in funding to hospitals and GPs, with an inclusion of $7 copayments for GP visits starting from next year.

GPs are the gatekeeper of the medical system in Australia. They are in the front line of preventative healthcare, and the forefront of prevention, intervention and screening. They do pap smear tests, blood pressure checks and screening for diabetes and high cholesterol, smoking, and excessive alcohol use, where cost effective lifestyle and pharmacological interventions are used to prevent morbidity and mortality.

However, it is known that people from a lower socioeconomic status are more likely to have poor health. The effect of this copayment will be fewer visits to the GP from people of lower socioeconomic backgrounds, which are likely to lead in an increase in the overall disease burden. Furthermore, there will be likely an increase in presentations to the emergency department for trivial matters, wasting the resources of the hospital where GPs could have provided appropriate care.

As such, the copayment is opposed by the peak bodies representing doctors in Australia. See what the AMA has to say, or the #StopTheCoP posts on twitter.