INACTIVE KIDS VOUCHERS PARENTS, BE WARNED: POPULAR PROGRAM FACING AXE

Apopular State Government program that offsets costs of sports and recreational activity for kids could be axed at the end of next month.

If Premier Chris Minns opts not to continue the Active Kids voucher program, it will be a crushing blow to not only parents but local businesses that benefit from the concept. The vouchers, which give parents and carers $100 per child so they can participate in sport or a recreational activity, are being reviewed ahead of the State Budget.

HR and Marketing Manager at Nepean Swim and Fitness Julie Sheldrake said she was “disappointed” to hear the news that the cost-of-living measure could be cut.

“We are all experiencing that cost-of-living pressure with the price of petrol, groceries and mortgage rates going up, so people don’t have as much disposable income,” Sheldrake said.

“We have seen a 50 per cent increase in families reluctantly cancelling their swimming lessons over the past four to six weeks citing ‘financial pressures’.”

With 10 million swimming lessons missed during the pandemic and the swim school industry still recovering, Sheldrake fears of the repercussions for families who are no longer able to take part.

“I understand fiscal responsibility and that it can’t go on forever, but recent Royal Lifesaving research shows that drowning risk is at a generational high and children are months behind on swimming tuition,” she said.

“The whole industry is getting back up and running after swim teachers got other employment during COVID but take these vouchers away and we will see enrolment drop and that will affect local employment.”

339 people drowned in Australia in 2021/22, which was a 15 per cent increase on the previ- ous year and a 24 per cent increase on the 10-year average.

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Local doctors have welcomed moves in last week’s Federal Budget to help boost funding for health services, but say more needs to be done.

Increasing the bulk billing incentive at a cost of $3.5 billion in a bid to help GPs who are being forced to charge patients to keep their practices alive may be a win, but it’s not the silver bullet solution.

As more doctors switch to not bulk billing, the commitment announced by Treasurer Jim Chalmers will help incentivise general practitioners to provide free healthcare to around 11.6 million Australians.

A triple increase in the bulk billing incentive for concession card holders will be quite useful according to Erskine Park Family Clinic Doctor, Russell D’Cunha.

“It is definitely a positive step to promote bulk billing for those with concession cards and will likely make some clinics thinking about transitioning to full private billing to re-think and consider at least a mixed billing model to continue to routinely bulk bill concession card holders,” D’Cunha said.

“This will greatly assist those most vulnerable in the community in continuing to access medical care at their local GP and not delay presenting for health concerns.”

Our Medical Home Penrith Clinical Lead Doctor, Janet Widmer said that it was good to see the government “finally listening to the concerns of general practice”.

“The tripling of the bulk billing incentive for children and concession card holders will go a long way to ensuring the continuation of accessible healthcare for bulk billing medical centres like ours,” Widmer said.

“However, we hope it’s just the start of the long overdue additional funding for general practice.”

Widmer said GPs were the “front line” of the healthcare system.

Other Budget measures included additional remuneration for GPs spending extra time with a patient, funding to extend telehealth consultations, and increased funding to allow more GPs to visit elderly people at home or nursing homes.

Despite the additions, D’Cunha said that the government must look at addressing broader issues as doctors and medical practices struggle with an influx of patients and rising costs.

“Many GPs and clinics, whilst welcoming the above announcements, are still going to continue to private bill patients until the Medicare rebate matches the Australia Medical Association recommended fee,” he said.

“To achieve this, Medicare rebates for a Level B consultation would need to increase from $39.75 to approximately $86 and Level C from current $76.95 to approximately $158.00.”

Widmer agreed that the funding is welcomed, but that more measures need to be put in place.

“The government needs to provide services entirely free for patients who are at risk, who are vulnerable and those with complex health problems,” she said.

“We try very hard to cater for those people but the difficulty is our remuneration has been decreasing so they need a realistic bulk billing rebate from my point of view.”