Chief Minister Andrew Barr has warned more patients would have been forced to use Canberra's already-busy hospitals if plans to slash Medicare rebates for short GP visits had gone ahead.
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The federal government on Thursday backed down from plans to cut the rebate by $20 for consultations lasting six to 10 minutes, with Health Minister Sussan Ley saying changes to the rebate were "off the table".
Before the announcement, Mr Barr had expressed his own concerns about the proposal, describing it as another federal government attack on universal healthcare for Australians.
"An increase in the cost of a GP visit and a decrease in bulk billing may directly increase the numbers of people presenting to the hospital emergency departments either for free healthcare or because they delayed seeking primary healthcare, their condition has worsened, and they now require more-expensive, labour-intensive acute care," Mr Barr told The Canberra Times.
Canberra's emergency departments have already been dealing with unprecedented numbers and last year, presentations hit record highs.
Mr Barr said forcing people who were not bulk-billed, and were already charged a gap, to pay even more out of their own pocket would only diminish access to affordable primary healthcare.
"A reduction in access to primary health care is also likely to result in poorer overall health outcomes for Australians, with associated rising costs in the future," he said.
"The incentive to undertake longer consultations may also mean that each GP will see fewer patients each day, even when longer consultation times are not really required, exacerbating the current undersupply of GPs in the ACT and increasing waiting times for an appointment."
He said the ACT already had the country's lowest bulk-billing rates and the proposed measures would have likely reduced bulk-billing even further.
He also raised concerns the proposal would have impacted the profitability of general practice, which could in turn lead to workforce shortages as fewer junior doctors pursued this type of specialty training.
Another concern was that cuts to Medicare rebates for short GP visit could have caused patients to flock to the ACT's walk-in centres.
Mr Barr said while the centres - which are funded by the ACT government - offered free one-off advice and treatment for minor illness and injury, they were no substitute for general practice.
"These centres are an additional service but do not cater for children under two, or for people with more complex, serious or longer term conditions. Some pharmacies will offer services such as taking blood pressure, but again, this is not a substitute for general practice, it is an additional service only," Mr Barr said.
The government's decision to axe the cuts to Medicare rebates came just a day after Labor leader Bill Shorten has declared the opposition would strike down the "sneaky, back-door fee" when Parliament resumes next month.
The Greens and four crossbench senators - Ricky Muir, Jacqui Lambie, Nick Xenaphon and Glenn Lazarus also indicated they would have opposed the move.
Australian Medical Association president Associate Professor Brian Owler said on Thursday "common sense had prevailed".
