The Australian Medical Association (AMA) says the Federal Government's imminent revamp of Medicare will be a fundamental shift in the ideology of the scheme. A Sydney newspaper has reported that private health insurance may be expanded to cover GP visits, and that incentives to get doctors to bulk-bill low income patients will include higher incentive payments for doctors in rural and outer metropolitan areas. The Federal Government has declined to comment on the report. Its package of measures to respond to declining bulk-billing rates is due to be announced later this month. AMA president, Kerryn Phelps, says its likely the Government will change the fundamental idea which has underpinned Medicare to date. "There's no question that this is an acknowledgement that bulk-billing universally for all patients cannot continue," she said. "Medicare has been propped up by GPs for many years now, and it really has reached a point where the Government is saying that they can't afford to pay the real value of medical services, and doctors saying that they can't prop Medicare up any longer." Source www.abc.net.au ###