Australia's Medicare claims hit 1 million per day
03-Sep-15, Health Ministry Australia
Medicare is now being billed over one million times a day for the first time in history, as new figures show growth in claims outstripped the number of new patients three-to-one over the past decade.
Minister for Health Sussan Ley today released the annual Medicare figures for 2014-15, which show 21 million Australians accessed over 368 million individual services on the Medicare Benefit Schedule (MBS) at a cost to taxpayers of over $20 billion.
%20ABC.jpg "Australias Medicare claims hit 1 million per day (c) ABC")
Image: ABC
“About 90 per cent of the population accessed Medicare last year, with taxpayers billed an average of 17 times per patient at a cost of over $800 each in 2014-15,” Ms Ley said.
“Or to put it another way, Medicare was billed an average of one million times every single day last year – the first time this has ever happened.”