KEY POINTS:
Most New Zealanders aged 25 to 44 will enjoy cheaper visits to the GP from tomorrow.
Subsidies will cover 750,000 to 800,000 people in that age group, the last to benefit from the Government's seven-year spending programme on primary healthcare.
Costs to the patient for a visit to the GP will be $27.50 lower and prescription fees will drop from $15 to $3. The move will cost the taxpayer roughly $67 million (excluding GST) in the first year alone. GP fees average around $50 but vary widely throughout the country and can cost up to $70.
Medical Association GP council chairman Dr Mark Peterson welcomed the subsidy. "Patients in the 25- to 44-year age group will now benefit from this subsidy, as those in other age groups already have."
The Government's $2.2 billion-dollar investment in primary healthcare is designed to benefit the middle classes - those who do not already qualify by virtue of living in a poor area or a suburb with a high Maori or Pacific Island population.
But a Consumer survey of 334 GPs in May found that the programme was inadvertently raising the cost of GP visits for young children.
It found that the number of practices offering free healthcare for children under 6 had decreased from 76 per cent to 67. Most, however, kept charges to $10 or less. The maximum a parent can expect to pay was $28, which was in Auckland.
There is no contractual or legislative requirement that stops GPs charging for this age group, although the Ministry of Health says about two-thirds of practices offer free care to those under the age of 6.
The roll-out to 45- to 64-year-olds last July was nearly delayed when groups representing most GPs objected to what they considered a Government bid to control fees.
After a new review process the boards allowed a rise of between 4.5 per cent and 6.3 per cent, considering that to be "reasonable".
Clinics wanting to increase their fees by more than the benchmarks must justify their bid to an independent review committee appointed by their region's health boards.
