Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is planning significant investments in bulk-billing, urgent care clinics, and the GP workforce to make Medicare a central election promise. The government aims to lower healthcare costs and contrast its approach with the Opposition's stance on healthcare.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is gearing up to make major boosts to bulk-billing, urgent care clinics and the GP workforce as he seeks to turn Medicare into a key plank of his cost-of-living pitch at the upcoming federal election.
Albanese is likely to use a set-piece speech to reveal the health promises early this year, ahead of an election in March, April or May at the latest. With Labor and the opposition, an April election would allow Labor to avoid delivering a budget deficit in March while also moving out of the orbit of the WA state election, due for March 8.Health Minister Mark Butler said Labor would put Medicare at the centre of its election agenda.
He is sitting on several reviews of the system, which advise transitioning away from a funding model that relies on paying doctors for every visit and moving towards lump sums for clinics. These decisions will be deferred until after the election. He also queried the government’s plan to expand urgent care clinics. “We’re still waiting for an evaluation of these centres. We haven’t seen whether they’re providing value for money.”Wright welcomed more investment in the GP workforce, and said the college had sought funding to lift the number of doctors it trains by 100 more people each year for the next five years.
“Peter Dutton has form in this area, as the health minister who tried to abolish bulk-billing altogether, jack up medicine prices and make everyone pay a fee at the emergency department.”
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