Mark Butler (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Health and Aged Care) Share this | Hansard source

The former health minister, now the Leader of the Opposition, tried to abolish bulk-billing altogether. He said there were 'too many free Medicare services'. It's no wonder why doctors voted him the worst health minister in the 40-year history of Medicare. That's not our approach. For Labor, bulk-billing is literally the beating heart of Medicare. That's why we tripled the bulk-billing incentive in last year's budget—the biggest investment in bulk-billing in the 40-year history of Medicare. In the member for Gilmore's electorate, that lifted the payment for a standard bulk-billed GP consult by 50 per cent—something the college of GPs described as a 'game changer'.

On top of all that, the government has delivered the two biggest across-the-board increases to the Medicare rebate in 30 years, since Paul Keating was the Prime Minister—the biggest and the second-biggest increase in the Medicare rebate. We have increased the Medicare rebate in just two years by more than those opposite managed in nine long years. As a result of all this, in Gilmore the bulk-billing rate for GP visits in the last seven months has gone up by almost six per cent. And across the nation in May there were more than 900,000 additional free visits to the doctor—in just one month. That's what you get under this government. You get more bulk-billing and you get cheaper medicines. That is how you help with the cost of living, not by pushing up power prices with risky nuclear reactors.

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