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The ACT Government has accepted a recommendation to assess the cost and feasibility of making emergency ambulance call-outs free. Current calls cost $1,180, plus $15 per kilometre travelled outside the territory. The government will consider models used in Tasmania and Queensland while examining potential impacts on private health insurance and community-funded services.
The ACT government has accepted a recommendation to consider making emergency ambulance call-outs free. The government is expected to table the costings of free ambulances in February.
The ACT government has consulted with the Tasmanian and Queensland governments, which both cover ambulance fees, about the potential of making ambulance call-outs free in the territory. An emergency ambulance call-out, including transport to a hospital, costs $1,180 in the ACT, with a further $15 added for every kilometre travelled outside of the ACT. The ACT Greens have long called for ambulances to be free, arguing people without private health cover may be reluctant to call for help.
ACT Greens MLA Andrew Braddock says people should not have to consider the cost of urgent assistance in a medical emergency.
"When someone is going through a medical emergency, we don't want them to stop and think about how much it will cost them," Greens spokesperson for emergency services Andrew Braddock said. 'Unintended effects' a concern The ACT government has now accepted a recommendation from a Legislative Assembly committee to report back on the cost associated with free ambulances and how it might be implemented.
The government has also consulted with other governments around the country that cover ambulance fees in their jurisdictions. The ACT government has consulted with the Tasmanian and Queensland governments, which both cover ambulance fees, about how it could work in the territory. Through those conversations, as noted in the committee's budget estimates report, some concerns have been raised about "unintended effects", including people cancelling their private health insurance.
"The cost of an ambulance service is ultimately borne by the community," an ACT government spokesperson said in a statement. "Whilst ambulance services are free for patients in some jurisdictions, residents pay for the costs of the service by other means. " ACT Health Minister Marisa Paterson says government costings suggest making ambulances free may be quite expensive. Health and Emergency Services Minister Marisa Paterson has previously said boosting the paramedic workforce was the government's current investment priority.
"The government has been doing some costings and it does look like it is pretty expensive to do this," she said. On its website, the ACT government acknowledges the cost associated with ambulances "can seem daunting" but fee exemptions "are designed to support the most vulnerable members of our community". Health Care Consumers' Association Executive Director Lachlan Atyeo said many Canberrans may not know they are eligible for a fee exemption, potentially putting them off calling an ambulance.
Lachlan Atyeo of the Health Care Consumers' Association says he sees no reason the ACT could not make ambulances free.
"A lot of the time people aren't going to know those sorts of things until they are already in that situation where they need to have that knowledge," he said. "There are exemptions available, there are concessions available for people, but you have to know about it which means you have to have a degree of health literacy.
""If you need critical care, in a timely and urgent manner, then worrying about whether or not you have to pay should not be a consideration," he said. "You've got two other states demonstrating it can be done, and I see no reason why the ACT shouldn't join with those states. "The majority of concession card holders are entitled to free ambulances services in the ACT.
Among the exemptions are people injured in a car accident, students at school, mental health patients, and victims of family violence or sexual assault. Most aged pension and health care concession card holders are also entitled to free ambulance services within the ACT. The ACT government is expected to table the costings for free ambulances in February next year.
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