Why doesn`t my rebate cover the full cost of my eye care?

Why doesn’t
my rebate
cover the
full cost of
my eye care?
Since 1975, many optometric clinical services have been included in the Medicare Schedule. This means that when
visiting your local optometrist as a patient, you have received a rebate from the Government to contribute to the
cost of these clinical services. This investment by Government has meant that you have been assisted in accessing
preventative eye health care and care to manage eye and vision problems.
The rebate was only ever intended to
cover 85 per cent of the amount that the
Government suggests as a full fee for the
consultation. To support patients’ access
to eye care, some optometrists charged
some patients only at this rate.
Recently, the Government announced
significant changes to the Medicare
rebates for optometry services.
REBATE ($)
CPI (Consumer
Price index)
beyond
September
2014 has been
assumed based
on averaging of
recent indices.
• freezing of the Medicare rebate until
2018, more than three years away.
This means the rebate will remain
unchanged while costs of providing
care continue to rise.
The Government rebate is
continuing to fall further
behind the true cost of
providing quality eye care.
The graph below shows the rebate the Government offers for the most common optometry
consultation (blue), and the rebate that it should offer if rebates had been
indexed by CPI since the late 1990s (red).1 It’s a big difference.
75
70
1
• a cut of almost five per cent in the
rebate you receive
The changes come on top of many years
of inadequate indexing of the rebate,
which means the rebate hasn’t increased
in line with costs.
These included:
65
REBATE
REBATE CPI (ALL)
60
55
50
45
YEAR
40
1997
1999
2001
2003
2005
2007
2009
Concerned about the gap payment?
We recommend you share your thoughts with
your Federal Member of Parliament.
2011
2013
2015