GP co-payment doubts

A new report has cast fresh doubt over the Abbott Government's proposed $7 co-payment for doctors' visits, finding GPs can deliver medical services more cheaply than other parts of the health system.

Sydney University's annual Bettering the Evaluation and Care of Health report found that Medicare cost $6.3 billion on GP services in 2013-14, which made up just 6 per cent of total government spending on health.

The report highlighted how the average cost per service at a GP clinic was $47, plus a $5 contribution from the patient.

But if the same service was performed in a hospital emergency department, the cost to taxpayers shot up to $599 in the case of WA.

In other findings, the report said doctors were working harder and treating more chronic conditions, with depression and diabetes taking up more of a doctor's time.

In an opinion piece for the Conversation website, the report's authors challenged the Government's claim spending on Medicare was unsustainable, arguing while the number of GP visits had increased, the services were cost-effective.

A spokesman for Health Minister Peter Dutton rejected the report's conclusion.

"Over the past decade, the cost of the MBS has gone up 130 per cent and could double again in the next decade," he said. "Suggestions that is sustainable are denying the facts."