Medicare
18 November 2024
I want to thank my friend and Labor colleague the member for Solomon for raising this matter of public importance and private member's business about Medicare and our health workers. While he takes care of up north, I've got the beautiful New South Wales area of the Hunter and the seat of Paterson. I couldn't be prouder to call Paterson my home and know that, under our government, we are working to protect this incredible institution that is called Medicare. We've got a long history of protecting Medicare because it was our idea in the first place. Like a lot of good ideas, they do need to be nurtured and cared for, and that's what this Albanese government is doing. This year, in 2024, Medicare celebrates 40 years. That's 40 years of a universal healthcare system, where it doesn't matter how much you earn or where you live; primary health care is yours, and that's such an important and fundamental principle. We know that it can be transformative in people's lives. But we also know that in 2024 it can be difficult to get in to see your doctor. I know in my seat it can take up to three weeks. That's why we're working on encouraging more people to become general practitioners. We are working with amazing institutions, like the University of Newcastle, to encourage more people to become general practitioners.
This month, I had the pleasure of attending the Stronger Medicare Awards here in Canberra, where we acknowledged and honoured our Medicare Champions—those medical practitioners who work incredibly hard to provide accessible, high-quality and innovative health care to people, to their patients. I want to congratulate Dr Chris Boyle from Raymond Terrace Family Practice. Dr Chris Boyle is a Medicare Champion, and he was one of the eight finalists to be acknowledged by those awards. Dr Boyle has become a vital member of our community, but it hasn't happened overnight; it has taken him 40 years to do that, and he has been doing it for about the same time as Medicare has been around. After those 40 years, he talks to me about the fact that now about 10 per cent of graduating students go into general practice. When he graduated in the early seventies it was 50 per cent—so we have seen a decline. We know we need to turn that around. We have said it is a priority for a Labor government to do that. We want to continue to build and rebuild general practice services in all our communities.
The government's 2024 budget provides $2.8 billion to continue to strengthen Medicare. This is in addition to the historic $6.1 billion investment in Medicare from the 2023-24 budget. These actions respond to recommendations of the Strengthening Medicare Taskforce and take key steps needed to address the many pressing challenges in our healthcare system.
In 2023 we delivered the biggest indexation boost for Medicare in 30 years. We're not freezing the indexation like those before us did; we are boosting it, and that is a critical thing. This year we delivered the second-largest increase, with almost $900 million in additional funding for Medicare. This government is delivering. We have delivered more than double the amount of indexation to Medicare than the previous government did in almost a decade. I repeat that: under our government, in just under three years, we've doubled the indexation. The previous government froze it—and hear me when I say they may freeze it again; it is a real worry. They don't love Medicare like we do, and they spend their time trying to condense it, cut it and generally wind it back—and that's not good enough.
We know that we have to take a serious position and action on delivering bulk-billing as well, and that's why we tripled the incentive for bulk-billing. Since November 2023 we've seen the largest investment in bulk-billing. In my electorate of Paterson, that's a 3.1 per cent increase—so since November last year there's been a 3.1 per cent increase in bulk-billing. That equals 75,737 visits that have been bulk-billed in my electorate alone. That's important. Labor cares about Medicare and will continue to.
