Health Minister Mark Butler has said the government is considering capping specialists’ fees to reduce the gap between what Medicare covers and what specialists charge patients.

The Australian Medical Association strongly opposes the idea and is threatening legal action. Butler says the government is willing to “test the boundaries” of constitutional limits.

So what’s going on here? What does the Constitution have to do with doctors’ fees?

Doctors’ groups oppose ‘socialised’ medicine

The current fuss forms part of a long history of doctors’ lobby groups opposing key elements of Australia’s system of universal health care.

Doctors’ lobby groups have opposed:

introducing the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (BPS) in the 1940s

introducing Medibank (the first version of Medicare) in 1970s

introducing Medicare in the 1980s

expanding the nurse practitioner profession in the early 2000s

allowing pharmacists to perform vaccinations in the 2010s

allowing pharmacists to prescribe certain prescription medicines in the 2020s.

It’s no surprise, then, that doctors’ lobby groups oppose the government’s current push to limit patients’ out of pocket costs to see a specialist. It’s also no surprise medical specialists dominate the Australian Taxation Office’s list of highest paid professions.

Some of the doctors’ opposition to health policy had constitutional implications.

The 1946 social services referendum

The Medical........

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