Govt said to consider privatising Medicare payments

The federal government is reportedly considering privatising the delivery of Medicare and other benefits as part of a major shake-up at the Department of Health.

Fairfax Media is reporting that the government may offload the processing of over $50 billion worth of payment transactions per year to a private provider, replacing back-office operations currently conducted by the public service.

Besides Medicare, this would also potentially encompass aged-care and Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme payments.

The outsourced provider would administer claims and payments while assessing eligibility criteria. This would require patients and doctors to share their data with the private provider.

According to the reports, Australia Post, Telstra, the major banks and EFTPOS providers have expressed an interest in acting as the private provider, as have some foreign multinationals.

The government is considering conducting a proof-of-concept trial next year, which would require companies being selected this year.

Public sector unions are warning that the move could potentially lead to the losses of thousands of public service jobs.

Opposition leader Bill Shorten has also used the news to accuse Malcolm Turnbull of being anti-Medicare.

“The Liberals are always running around attacking Medicare. They did it in the 2014 Budget, they did it in the 2015 Budget,” he told reporters.

“And it looks like Malcolm Turnbull is no different to Tony Abbott. They just want to flog off Medicare and privatise services.”

Image courtesy of Neff Conner under CC