Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has promised $2.2 billion to launch the biggest overhaul of Medicare in its 40-year history while pledging to clamp down on ballooning costs in the National Disability Insurance Scheme.
Pharmacists and nurses will play a greater role in the health system, while new funding models will shift away from the traditional fee-for-service scheme that has driven how GPs are paid since the universal healthcare scheme began.
The scheme, currently growing in cost at between 12 and 14 per cent a year as thousands more people join, will now have an 8 per cent annual growth target. But it will involve boosted funding, through primary health networks, to enable GPs to open after-hours as well as an investment in digital health.
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