ACT Ambulance services are currently not covered by Medicare. Photo: Michelle Kroll.
The ACT Greens have pledged to make ambulance services free if they form a Greens-led government after the October 2024 election.
An emergency ambulance callout and treatment costs the patient $1070 in the ACT, even if the request to 000 is made by someone else.
Pensioners and certain vulnerable groups are exempt from paying, but others are billed directly for the service unless they have a private insurance policy covering ambulance care.
“On the worst day of your life, you shouldn’t be worrying about the cost. When you’re in an emergency and calling for an ambulance, you’re calling for an essential service,” said Andrew Braddock, Greens spokesperson for emergency services, who is re-contesting his seat in the Yerrabi electorate.
“A $1000 ambulance bill is a significant financial shock for most people, and chasing up the payments can cost the public service more money than it’s worth.”
The ACT is currently governed by a Labor-led coalition with the Greens.
Labor Chief Minister Andrew Barr called the Greens plan a “dramatic change” and a “thought bubble” that had not been costed.
“If you were to extend [ambulance services] to effectively be free for everyone, then you would either be expecting people who currently have private health insurance to downgrade their private health insurance to no longer have ambulance cover and have a universal public insurance scheme.
“It will be quite a dramatic change in the way that the system operates. It would require a community-wide levy to fund it.”
ACT Greens candidates (back) MLAs Rebecca Vassarotti, Shane Rattenbury, Andrew Braddock and Jo Clay with (front) new candidates Soelily Consen-Lynch, Adele Sinclair and Sam Nugent. Photo: Claire Fenwicke.
If implemented, the ACT would join Queensland and Tasmania as the only jurisdictions in Australia to provide free ambulance care.
Greens candidate for Brindabella Sam Nugent, who says she has used an ambulance multiple times in the last two months, says people shouldn’t need private health insurance to avoid bill shock in a medical emergency.
“If I’d chosen to cancel my private health insurance, I would have been left $3210 out of pocket,” she said.
“As a part-time worker with a chronic health condition, I am unsure as to how, after this expense, I would be able to afford my medication.
“In a cost-of-living crisis, when people need emergency care they should not be faced with a choice of needing to cut expenses to pay for emergency services. Do you have to second guess in an emergency how you can afford a life saving service?
“This initiative will make a significant impact for those who are left facing an unexpected cost of $1070 for a single ambulance trip in the current cost-of-living crisis.”
Surveys have revealed that many Australians mistakenly believe that Medicare covers the cost of ambulances.
In the ACT, students currently get free ambulance cover while at school, and victims of domestic violence and crime are generally exempt from paying, as are people who die while receiving ambulance treatment.
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