Mark Baker (Braddon, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is addressed to the Minister for Health and Ageing. Would the minister update the House on how the government’s Strengthening Medicare package has led to the 10th consecutive increase in the rate of bulk-billing across Australia, particularly in my electorate of Braddon?

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Braddon for his question. It is nice to get a question in this chamber, because one does not get too many questions from the shadow minister. The member for Braddon is locally known as ‘the member for Medicare’, given that the GP bulk-billing rates in the electorate of Braddon have increased by no fewer than 25 percentage points since December 2003. Then of course there are all the other good things he is doing for the health of his electorate, such as the $7.75 million aged care facility that he has just announced at Circular Head, in his electorate.

I can inform the House that, in the June quarter, the GP bulk-billing rate in this country increased to 76.6 per cent. This is the 10th consecutive quarter of higher GP bulk-billing rates. The bulk-billing rate has now increased by 10.1 percentage points since December 2003. The overall bulk-billing rate—that is to say, GPs and specialists—now stands at 72.3 per cent compared—and I say this to the member for Grayndler—with just 71.1 per cent in March 1996.

Bulk-billing is not the be all and end all of Medicare, but it is important. It should be widely available, particularly for children and pensioners, and that is just what is happening thanks to the policies of the Howard government. The bulk-billing rate for children was 83.8 per cent in the June quarter. It is at an all-time high. The bulk-billing rate in country areas, 71.3 per cent in the June quarter, is also at a new record high. In February 2004 the member for Lalor said that Medicare was ‘haemorrhaging’. It was ‘losing blood’, she said. ‘It is dying,’ she said. I can advise her that, since then, the bulk-billing rate in her electorate has increased by over 10 percentage points to 80.5 per cent. Thanks to the policies of this government, Medicare is stronger than ever and the Howard government is most definitely the best friend that Medicare has ever had.