Alicia Payne (Canberra, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Health and Aged Care. How is the Albanese Labor government strengthening Medicare and delivering cheaper medicines to Australians? Why is it needed after a decade of cuts and neglect to health care?

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

I thank the terrific member for Canberra for her question. She has been such a strong advocate for better and cheaper health care in her seat here in the ACT, and she campaigned so hard on Labor's promise last year to strengthen Medicare and to make medicines cheaper. This government is delivering on her promise: tripling the bulk-billing incentive; rolling out, as the Prime Minister said, a network of 58 Medicare urgent care clinics; and making medicines cheaper. Last year we slashed the maximum amount that pensioners and concession card holders would pay across a given year for all of their medicine needs by a quarter, by 25 per cent. That means this year around two million people on the pension or holding a concession card have paid up to 25 per cent less for their medicines. In just 10 months after we delivered the biggest cut to the price of medicines in the 75-year history of the PBS, there have been almost half a million cheaper scripts issued here in the ACT. Across the nation every single month, Australians are saving around $20 million just because of that one single measure.

The member for Canberra has also been a really strong advocate for better bulk-billing arrangements. Here in the ACT, we see some of the lowest rates of bulk-billing anywhere in the country. Our government's tripling of the bulk-billing incentive, which took effect on 1 November, is a game changer, to use the language of the College of GPs. It's early days, but we are already seeing this historic investment make a real difference. At the last sitting, a couple of weeks ago, I talked about a clinic in Magnetic Island, in the member for Herbert's electorate. He's not here right now, at question time, but in his electorate there is a clinic that has returned from private billing to bulk-billing because of our measure. Last week, a clinic in Caringbah, in the member for Cook's electorate, reported an increase in bulk-billing rates from September, when about half of patients were bulk-billed at that big clinic, to November, when two-thirds were being bulk-billed—just two months later.

For this side of the House and for the member for Canberra, that really matters. That really matters because bulk-billing for us, the Labor Party, is the beating heart of Medicare, and that is the big difference in health policy. While Labor tripled the bulk-billing incentive, a record investment, the Leader of the Opposition, when he was health minister, tried to abolish bulk-billing altogether, to make every single Australian pay a fee every single time they visited the doctor. While Labor is making medicines cheaper, the Leader of the Opposition, when he was health minister, tried to make medicines more expensive by jacking up the price of medicines by up to $5 a script. That is the difference between them and us. (Time expired)