AUSTRALIANS are struggling to afford health and dental care because of soaring out-of-pocket expenses, with figures showing nearly half the population has put off at least one of a variety of treatments on cost grounds.   

The biggest pressure is in dental care, with more than a third of Australians postponing or avoiding seeing a dentist in the past year because of the cost.   

Newspoll research conducted for The Weekend Australian has found significant minorities of patients, ranging from 13 to 19 per cent, avoided seeing a doctor, buying a medicine or having a test because of the cost - as official figures show out-of-pocket medical charges are continuing to soar.

The findings have triggered calls from patient groups and the Greens for the government to do more to help patients cope with high medical and dental bills.

The Greens last night described out-of-pocket costs as a "very, very important issue", and called on the federal government to commit all the $2.8 billion savings from the planned means-testing of the private health insurance rebate into new measures to cushion Australians from excessive health bills.



Greens health spokesman and former GP Richard Di Natale said inequities in the ability to access and pay for healthcare were "one of the glaring deficiencies of the health reform debate".   

"The government is aware that our agreement with them is conditional on significant reform in the area of dental health," Senator Di Natale said.

"The means test should only happen if there's commitment from the government that the money (saved) is specifically spent on the issue of out-of-pocket costs."

Senator Di Natale stopped short of threatening to withdraw Greens support for the means test if the government refused to make such a pledge, describing the rebate as a wealth redistribution "exacerbating problems we have with a two-tier health system".   

But the linking of the two issues was likely to come as a distraction as the government attempts to muster support for the means test in the lower house, as well as threatening to upset its fragile budgetary arithmetic.

The Newspoll research also found that 45 per cent of Australians lacked confidence that a mental health patient would receive adequate care.

The research also found slightly more than one in five Australians faced what they considered as unreasonable delays in being able to see a GP. While half of Australians felt the delays were about the same as five years ago, more than one-third, or 37 per cent, thought they had got worse in that time.   

In addition, while 88 per cent of Australians were confident they would receive high-quality and safe care if they fell seriously ill, the proportion who were not confident doubled, from 11 per cent to 22 per cent, when the question became whether they were confident they would be able to afford their care.

The findings reflect a continued worsening of affordability measures seen in other surveys as well as official statistics. Doctors and health experts warn that some low-income patients are increasingly not turning up for specialist appointments because of soaring private fees.

The latest Medicare figures show that average out-of-pocket charges over the past five years have risen by 50 per cent for medical scans, by 89 per cent for blood and other pathology tests, by 84 per cent for operations and by 168 per cent for obstetrics.

Maurice Fabiani, chairman of the newly formed Australian Patients Association, said it was clear affordability was "a major issue".   

For every Australian struggling to afford the COST of private health insurance .. there are even more struggling to understand its VALUE.