Gordon Reid (Robertson, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

February 2023 marks the 39th anniversary of the introduction of Medicare by the government of Prime Minister Hawke. Australia's healthcare system is based on equitable and fair access for all Australians. It was in my maiden speech to this parliament that I spoke about how our healthcare system is based on fair and equitable access for all. Our hospitals, for example, including those in my region, Gosford Hospital and Wyong Hospital, are places where it does not matter who you are, it doesn't matter where you come from and it doesn't matter the circumstances that lead to your presentation. You will be cared for, and you will be cared for for free. That's due to a hard-fought Labor initiative that saw a little green card come into the lives of all Australians, a little green card with the word that represents universal access and complete access: Medicare.

This is only going to improve with the introduction of our urgent care centres, one of which my electorate on the Central Coast is receiving. We are creating a new model of care in Australia, one that is seen and established right across the world in different nations—access to care if you are too sick to see the GP and not sick enough to see the emergency department. It is a service that will treat adults, a service that will treat children, a service with extended operating hours and, most importantly, a service that will be bulk-billed. This is part of our promise—the Albanese-Labor government's promise—to strengthen Medicare and improve access to Medicare services.

A major issue that I see in the emergency departments on the Central Coast is the rationing of medications, meaning that patients are taking their prescribed medications every second day, every third day, every fourth day or sometimes once a week. This is all because they've been unable to afford their prescription medications. I can think of multiple clinical examples where this has been a significant issue. Let's take a patient who's taking a blood thinner, apixaban, which is Eliquis, in an attempt to prevent a blood clot causing a stroke secondary to an abnormal heart rhythm, such as atrial fibrillation. They are all very common conditions throughout our community. Patients would only be taking medication infrequently, and, therefore, this condition would lead to that patient presenting to the emergency department with a significant physical deficit—inability to use their arms, inability to use their legs and walk, inability to see, inability to swallow or the inability to talk—because of a stroke.

I think of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus presenting with several complications secondary to consistently elevated levels of blood sugar, including blindness because of damage to the retina, kidney failure requiring dialysis, damage to the nerves in the extremities and issues with the blood vessels in the legs, leading to wounds which get infected and requiring amputation of those limbs. I think of stroke. I think of coronary artery disease and heart disease, just to name a few. These are only two examples where the patients were unable to afford their medications so they would ration them, as I said, every second day, every third day or once a week or sometimes not take them at all. And these are two examples of patients who have chronic diseases where the sequelae are preventable if the medications are taken on a regular basis as prescribed by their doctor.

I'm proud to be part of a government—this Labor government—that is improving medication access for millions of Australians, including thousands on the Central Coast. From 1 January 2023 the government reduced the cost of Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme co-payments by $12.50 to a maximum of $30. This is not only a cost-of-living measure but also a measure that will prevent unnecessary trips to the doctor and unnecessary presentations to the emergency department, and it will ultimately save lives.

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