Costs of maternity care are rising faster than other areas of health and there are fears it's contributing to a gender bias within the system.
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00:00 So the ABC has been reporting on out of pocket costs for health, particularly radiology,
00:06 and following our most recent story, a lot of gynaecologists, obstetricians got in touch
00:10 to say what they've particularly observed for their patients are what they describe
00:15 as a gender bias in the system.
00:17 So their patients are experiencing larger out of pockets for some of their common scans
00:22 than say comparable scans for men.
00:25 And we've heard from a Grattan Institute report that women generally have more out of pocket
00:30 health costs.
00:31 That's not only because of maternity care, but also because they have a higher burden
00:34 of chronic disease.
00:35 So while women are living longer, they're not necessarily living longer well.
00:41 And we also know that the average out of pocket costs for obstetrics has risen from $250
00:46 to $300 for non-hospital services over the past five years, and the bulk billing rates
00:52 are going backwards.
00:54 So we've heard from a lot of people, and cancer treatment comes up a lot, so in particular
00:58 breast cancer treatment.
01:00 A lot of women say based on their experiences, they're feeling that they're getting a lot
01:04 more out of pocket costs than say men with various cancers.
01:08 And in particular, there's a bit of a hole when it comes to mammograms, because the screening
01:13 is free, but if you need diagnostic imaging that follows that up, they then are slugged
01:17 with hundreds of dollars in out of pocket costs.
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