KEY POINTS:
Fees to see a GP are going up, despite the multibillion-dollar taxpayer boost for primary healthcare.
Costs are likely to rise by more than $1 for most patients after a controversial ruling by district health boards.
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Karen
Lets watch as the hospitals start complaining of
being too busy complaining that people should be going to their GPs first!! Then there arethe waiting times at the hospital. 4hrs or more waiting! And it will get worse, so much for affordable healthcare!
John Graham
Tessa you say [a] Your doctor charges $68.00 [b] Your mortgage is half your earnings [c] Your mortgage interest rate is rising and [d] Your wage stays the same ? [a] Find another doctor, many charge less as its a free market. [b] Anyone who takes on a mortgage of that level is not financially prudent [c] Mortgage rate rising, whose your bank ? I havent seen upward rate movements lately so shop around! and [d] wage staying the same! Whose your employer ? Wages tend to keep rate with inflation! In other words live within your means [old-fashioned idea that works).
Tessa
At the moment it costs me $68 to visit my GP in Auckland City, on top of that I normally come out with a prescription which will cost me a minimum of $15. Thats $83 right there, for this cost to increase is unacceptable. For people like myself who fall outside the earning criteria for government assistance, paying out half my wages towards a mortgage with an ever increasing interest rate let alone the rest of the weekly expenses, while my wage stays the same is difficult enough without having to save up for a couple of weeks to be able to go to the doctor and also afford to eat. I wonder how many of us there are out there that actually avoid going to there GP when they are ill because its just too expensive? No wonder the A&E departments get put under extra stress in Flu season.
Dug
After reading your article about GP fees set to rise, and after just having been to see a GP, I feel compelled to write to you.
Somehow, sometime last week, I contracted Tonsillitis. For 3 days I endured to pain of swallowing, hoping that it would go away. I Googled myself some self help - but it did not help - as I really did not know what was wrong. I am a fulltime dad, caring for my 8 month old son. My partner works. So, to state the obvious, we are a single income family, with a small child. Dealing with WINZ to get a Community Services card is more than nightmarish. We are treated like 2nd rate citizens, with no rights, or abilities of our own. So we do not deal with them, and pay our own way through life. As such, with no support, its financially difficult at the best of times. So I struggled with the pain in my throat, and the 3 nights of no sleep that it brought along, but in the end, I was in such pain, I had to go to the Dr. It cost me $65 for a 5 min consultation, which only took that long because the Dr was an extremely slow typist, and kept having to hit the delete key while entering my details into their computer database. It then costs me an extra $33 for the prescription. Now, dont get me wrong. Within a day, my pain had eased to a bearable level, and I am most grateful for the drugs I was prescribed. However... $100 (approx) is just a ridiculous amount of money to have to hand over when you are in our situation, especially when you dont really have a choice because of physical pain.
I firmly believe that left to their own devices, Doctors would elevate their fees to such a level, that their services would become out of reach for those without the abbreviation Dr in front of their name. Lets face it. The current system is inadequate. If you are extremely poor, you get a subsidy. But even that fails to take into account the fact that you are extremely poor. If your not extremely poor, then you have to pay the extremely-rich price. Just to bring things into perspective here. $100 for 5mins work = $1200 per hour. Now thats not a bad hourly rate. Healed but broke.
