Potential cost to Western Australia of proposed patient co-payments according to healthcare organisational structure: A preliminary analysis.

Background: The Australian federal government has proposed an AUD $7 patient co-payment for a general practitioner (GP) consultation. One effect of the co-payment may be that patients will seek assistance at public hospital emergency departments (EDs), where currently there is no user charge.

Aims: We studied the possible financial impact of patient diversion on the Western Australia (WA) health budget.