BULK-BILLING FOR ABORTION UNDER THREAT

The Health Insurance Commission (which administers Medicare) has been threaning some abortion providers with prosecution if they continue their decades-long practice of bulk-billing Medicare for the termination as well as charging an upfront fee for counselling. As a result, claim abortion counsellors, a number of the providers in NSW will no longer bulk-bill therefore forcing women to find the $520 needed for a first trimester abortion, which they can then claim on Medicare and get around $300 back. For some women this is a huge financial burden, for many it requires weeks of saving -which pushes them into the second trimester; for others it is simply impossible which means they are forced to have unplanned for and often unwanted babies. This is being done by stealth under the stewardship of a Health Minister who is on the record as saying he wants to reduce the number of abortions in Australia. Read the Press Release.