Veterans paying for service-related healthcare as GPs stop accepting rebate

Veterans are being left to pay for their own healthcare for service-related injuries and conditions as some GP clinics are no longer accepting the veteran white card.

The clinics argue the rebates are not high enough to cover the cost of services, but not getting timely and affordable medical care is exacerbating the chronic health issues of veterans and is causing mental distress, according to one advocate.

Amy Blacker served for 24 years in the Royal Australian Navy before being medically retired in April. She is still waiting for the DVA to approve a number of conditions for inclusion on her white card. It is a process she began in 2021. But earlier in February, her GP clinic wrote to her to say they no longer accept the card, so she will never get a chance to benefit from it.

Blacker said she does not want to change GPs because she and her family have been attending the same practice for many years, and she is happy with the care the clinic provides for her complex conditions. But she is paying out-of-pocket costs.

She said between the long process of applying to the DVA to have conditions covered by the white card, and the difficulty in finding clinics that accept the card, many veterans are struggling.

A former senior manager in the department of health and policy analyst Charles Maskell-Knight challenged claims from GPs that they are losing money from accepting the veteran white card.

Not getting timely and affordable medical care is exacerbating the chronic health issues of veterans and is causing mental distress, he said.