Several Tasmanian councils are looking at a medical levy to help prop up GP clinics.

Councils including Glamorgan-Spring Bay, the Huon Valley and the Tasman are struggling to keep local clinics open.

Glamorgan-Spring Bay Mayor Robert Young says a new levy is needed to ensure the municipality's vulnerable population - with a median age of 56 - has access to health care.

“The levy is $90 payable every year by every ratepayer and it's used to subsidise general practice and to encourage general practitioners to come to the east coast,” he said.

“It costs us between $550,000-$650,000 a year.”

The Australian Medical Association (AMA) says other councils will have to take the same route unless Medicare funding is increased.

“[Councils are] covering for the federal government inadequacies here, and they're doing a great job, but it can't keep going on forever,” AMA Tasmania president John Saul says 

“We are sadly seeing the Medicare rebate drop so much that it's impossible to universally bulk bill.

“We will see sections of communities that just won't be able to afford to see a GP and it's all the result of a government letting our patients down … [Medicare] has just become such a political football. No party seems to be really addressing the key problems.

“They just seem to be skirting around the edges and hiding from the key issues that are facing GPs and specialists alike who use Medicare.”

A spokesperson for the Tasmanian government says the state “acknowledges the important role that GPs and the primary healthcare sector plays in caring for our community”, but noted that primary healthcare is “the responsibility of the federal government”.

“We are working with the federal minister on what further supports from the federal government are required for the sector here in Tasmania,” the government said.

“Recently, the government proposed a bold Primary Healthcare Reform vision to the federal government and we look forward to progressing this proposal through the development of a model to present to the Commonwealth for further discussion.

“While the Tasmanian government is doing all it can to assist general practice with innovative solutions, the federal government need to come to the table and provide additional supports and incentives to ensure the long-term sustainability of GP practices.”