Health Minister Sussan Ley will go ‘town-to-town’ to make deal on Medicare changes

New Health Minister Sussan Ley has already begun the giant task of cleaning up the government’s Medicare levy mess.

Faced with a backbench revolt and after talking to doctors, Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Ms Ley have been forced to dump the $20 rebate cut for short GP visits.

Ms Ley says she'll go town-to-town and state-to-state consulting doctors, Labor, the Greens and the crossbenchers to get the right result.

She will face another fight over the $5 co-payment, due in July.

But she said some people who could afford to “should pay more than others”.

“It’s not a big scary monster, it’s a principle, it’s a price signal,” she said.

Opposition leader Bill Shorten said the only way to save Medicare was to change the government.