Federal Member for Parkes Mark Coulton has rejected claims levelled at the coalition government's handling of healthcare by Labor.
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Labor Senator Deborah O'Neill claimed the Liberal and National parties had failed voters after costs associated with GP visits had risen over the period since the coalition formed government in 2013.
Mr Coulton, however, has rejected attempts to tie the outcomes to federal policy and asserted that there was no link between the figures cited by Senator O'Neill from the Department of Health and costs in the Parkes electorate.
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"Although the government sets the Medicare Benefits Schedule fees and associated rebates, it has no authority to determine the amount a doctor charges for their services, including whether or not they bulk-bill," Mr Coulton said.
"Medical practices are private businesses that make their own decisions on pricing and billing."
Mr Coulton also provided figures showing the number of patients accessing bulk-billing had increased since the last time Labor were in power.
"The bulk-billing rate in the Parkes electorate in 2018-19 was 89.5 per cent, meaning more patients had access to no cost medical treatment than when Senator O'Neill's Government was in power (86.8 per cent)," Mr Coulton said.
A spokesperson for the Department of Health provided figures that back up that claim, noting that the majority of patients accessing a general practitioner in Parkes would have been doing so for services that were bulk-billed.
"It is incorrect to say that the data in the question answered by the Department of Health indicates the average cost of a GP visit has risen by that amount," the spokesperson said.
"The data only relates to the cost of GP services that are not bulk billed."
"The average cost for a GP service in Parkes was $36.32, but only for the one in 10 services that were not bulk billed in 2018-19. For the other nine in 10 services, there was no cost to patients."
Mr Coulton also pointed to the National's record regarding investment in health in his response, pointing out that the 2019 - 2020 Federal Budget provided funding increases to Medicare.
"Our 2019-20 Budget increased Medicare funding by $6 billion over the next four years to ensure more people can access GP Medicare services at no cost to the patient."
