From the House

By Marcelle Renkin, Program Coordinator

Activities and events

Once again we have a variety of meetups, courses and activities on offer, something for everyone! Check out our A ctivities, Courses and Events guide in this issue for ideas on how you can get involved in our local community through some of our regular and welcoming groups. Anglesea Twilight Farmers’ Market

The Farmers’ Markets have started again for the season. We farewelled our previous market manager James McLennan and wish him well.

We have welcomed a new market manager, Mic Stapleton, and look forward to working with him throughout the season. We’ve had a variety of new stall holders and many of our regular favourites attend our first few markets, and we look forward to seeing you join us at our future markets on the first and third Fridays until March 2022. Yarning Sessions on Wadawurrung Country

We have been overwhelmed by the support for this program, an initiative bought to us by volunteer Wendy Clark. Demand for our Walk on Country sessions was very high, so for those who missed out please keep a look out for extra dates in 2022. In February we will be holding a ‘Discomforting Truths’ session. Check the events section on our website for more details.

The final session in this program for 2021/22 will be held in conjunction with our last Farmers’ Market of the season on 18 March.

Come along and join in our Music and Storytelling session as we provide a safe inclusive space to learn more about First Nations culture and connection to land.

Power saving bonus

We have had the opportunity to help our community members access the state government funded $250 Power Saving Bonus. This is available to anyone in any of the following concession programs: Centrelink Pensioner Concession; JobSeeker; Youth Allowance; Austudy/Abstudy; or Department of Veterans Affairs Pensioner Concession. This is on offer until 31January 2022.

By Dr Stuart Jones and Dr Skye Hueneke, Anglesea Medical

WHAT IS MEDICARE? WHAT IS A GAP FEE?

Medicare is our hard-working public health insurance system. It funds a range of services such as GP visits, blood tests, X-rays and treatments. Through the COVID-19 pandemic, it has provided testing, treatment and now vaccines for COVID.

In a GP clinic, Medicare reimburses you the cost of your doctor’s visit. This rebate amount is set by the Australian Government. If you are bulk billed for a medical service, you will pay no out-ofpocket costs. This means that the health professional accepts the Medicare benefit as full payment for the service. However, there is often a gap between what patients pay for services and the amount that Medicare reimburses. For example, Medicare reimburses $39.10 for a standard 15-minute GP consultation, but currently the standard midweek cost of this service is $80. That means a privately billed patient will be charged $80 and receive a $39.10 rebate from Medicare, leaving them $40.90 ‘out-of-pocket’. So why is the gap getting bigger? In 2013, the government introduced a temporary ‘Medicare freeze’ to save money. Instead of your Medicare rebate increasing each year in step with indexation, it was frozen at 2013 levels. At the last election in 2019, the government agreed to finally end the ‘Medicare freeze’, which means that GP item numbers will be indexed every year. However, the government’s indexation of Medicare rebates has not kept pace with CPI (consumer price index) which is placing unsustainable pressure on general medical practices. This has led to a large difference in the cost of services compared to the Medicare rebate that is received, which is depicted in the graph above. As you can see the cost of running a GP medical centre has increased at a rate much greater than the rebate received from Medicare. So, in order for us to continue to provide the high quality care and services that we are committed to at Anglesea Medical, the gap between your fee and your Medicare rebate has increased over time.

However, our doctors understand and are aware that individual circumstances vary and some out-of-pocket costs may be reduced or waived in special circumstances. Please discuss your situation at the time of consultation with your doctor if this applies to you. We look forward to continuing to provide high quality care to Anglesea and to expanding and improving the health services we can provide to the community into the future.

Some useful sources of information: https://ama.com.au/media/prof-brianowler-ama-tv-2-july-2015-medicarerebate-freeze http://yourgp.racgp.org.au/Your-GP/ antifreeze https://croakey.org/health-budgetanalysis-part-1/ – for wider discussion of budget implications for health

https://www.racgp.org.au/health-ofthe-nation/downloads

Banking on our community

By Rob Cameron Bendigo Community Bank ®

HELPING LOCALS TO PROSPER

The local Anglesea and District Community Bank has been in operation for 16 years now, and with the recent move to a new location in the central shopping precinct, we thought it might be timely to remind our current and potential customers of how the bank has been able to provide its high quality banking service, while supplying financial support back to the local community.

Although branded as a Bendigo Bank, the business is actually owned by local shareholders and managed by a board of volunteers who have a passion to see their community prosper and grow.

The management company is called Corangamite Financial Services and was set up in 2003 with the support of local investment to kick off the first branch at Winchelsea. This company franchises the Bendigo Bank products and shares the profits that are made from your banking.

The Anglesea community then supported the opening of the second branch, in Anglesea, in May 2005 and the company opened a third branch at Lorne in December 2018.

These three locally owned Community Bank branches now hold in excess of $400 million of your banking business and have returned more than $3 million in community grants to schools, kindergartens, sporting clubs, community service groups, hospitals and environmental groups.

As well as these benefits, the local shareholders who originally purchased company shares to kick start the project, have received a regular dividend since 2006 that has further rewarded these investors for their willingness to embrace the community banking concept.

The company has been delighted to service the banking needs of this region in partnership with the Bendigo Bank, and even more delighted to share the profits of the local business back to the user groups that keep our community functioning.

We hope to continue growing our customer base in the region, allowing us to share more of our success back to you.

If you would like further information about connecting to the Anglesea and District Community Bank please telephone us on 5263 3906 or drop into the new branch at the eastern end of the Anglesea main shopping centre.

Thanks to all who have supported us and we hope to have more customers sharing in this wonderful community story.