Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

About 17,000 patients at the Bendigo Primary Care Centre in Bendigo—that's how many they have on their books—received worrying texts and emails last week. These emails and texts advised them that the clinic was moving from its bulk-billing method for all patients to the private billing for fee service model, meaning that people would have to pay a gap fee. Immediately my office started to receive calls, and I want to thank all those who reached out.

It's heartbreaking to see our biggest bulk-billing clinic in Greater Bendigo—and, in fact, in my electorate—go down this path. For so long they had held out. One by one other clinics in the area, because of rising costs and because of the impact of the previous government's decisions around Medicare, had gone down to the private billing model. It had put lots of pressure on those left in the sector. We have had another bulk-billing service, the Tristar service, go broke as well, as a result of the previous government's actions on Medicare.

What did the previous government do to create this? One measure that created such a problem for our GPs was that they froze Medicare rebates, not just for one year but for many years. In fact, it started in 2014 in their first budget, and every year GPs did not receive an increase. The freeze ended in the May budget of 2020. It took a pandemic, essentially, for the freeze to come off and for GPs to get an increase. But it hasn't made up the difference. The cost to GPs to deliver services has become harder and harder, and I do feel for a lot of our GPs who are overworked, who are struggling to keep up with patient loads as more and more GPs drop out because of the system.

Many GPs in regional areas are essentially a small business. They rely upon a Medicare rebate to help cover the costs. I say to all the GPs in my area: I know that it's tough, but please hang in there. This government has a plan. This government is going to invest $1 billion into Medicare: $750 million to look at rebates in Medicare and $250 million to help you with your practices. To the patients and to their clients: I say hang in there. It will get better because we are working to improve the system. It's going to take time, but this government, the Labor government, believes in Medicare. We will reinvest and rebuild Medicare—not like the previous government, who left it in ruins.

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