Are you honestly saying that if you go to your local bulk-billing doctor with a stubborn symptom that won't go away, necessitating multiple visits, that the doctor will only ever be paid for the first consultation? That the rest are all (metaphorically) 'bug-fixes that are included in the original fixed-price spec'?

Ain't so. Doctors get paid for their time, Medicare just has the government pay for it instead of the patient.

Also, dentists in particular are poorly covered by medicare here. I remember as a student going to a dentist that was affiliated with my uni and having the receptionist laugh when I pulled out my medicare card...

You and michael_dorfman are probably talking past each other, on account of being from different countries with different "Medicare" systems. The US, Australia and Canada all have systems called "Medicare".

In the US, Medicare is only for old people, and it's uncommon for them to attend university. Also, "uni" isn't a usual American colloquialism. So it appears that michael_dorfman is talking about US Medicare, and you're probably talking about Australian Medicare.

I was thinking of a hospitalization setting, where the payment is made for a DRG (a Diagnosis-Related Group) regardless of the specific procedures performed.

Cf http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diagnosis-related_group