Health Minister Sussan Ley has left the door open for more changes to planned Medicare reforms after dumping a controversial GP rebate.

Ms Ley - who late last year replaced Peter Dutton in the job - has scrapped plans to cut a Medicare rebate for short GP visits, abandoning an estimated $1.3 billion in planned savings. Just before Christmas, the government dumped a $7 co-payment measure for GP visits.

She says the government is still committed to a $5 cut to Medicare rebates for general patients from July 1, and a freeze on Medicare rebate indexation through to mid-2018.

But the minister has promised to consult widely on health reform, and doctors still have concerns about both those measures, particularly the $5 co-payment.

"Look, it is still government policy. That doesn't mean I'm not keen to hear people's views about it," she told the ABC on Friday.

"I will be working with them in how we refine programs the details of the co-payment, but the principle of the co-payment is sound."

Ms Ley, who has begun setting up meetings with key crossbenchers and the Greens, believes her consultation process will result in a solid plan to ensure the viability of Medicare.

"The overarching principle, for me, will be: we protect bulk-billing, we maintain and improve high-quality care, we put that price ceiling into health and we make Medicare sustainable for the long term."

Medicare is not now sustainable, with the levy raising around $10 billion while the cost is $20 billion, she said.

Ms Ley does not believe that simply raising the levy is the answer to solving structural issues in Medicare.

Here is the original post:

Universal health care still at risk: King