LIBERAL’S SPIN AROUND MEDICARE
Federal Member for Macquarie, Susan Templeman said the Cleanbill survey is incorrect and does not accurately represent bulk-billing or out of pocket data.
“We know we have more to do to keep strengthening Medicare, after a decade of cuts and neglect from the Liberals, and we are committed to doing it,” Ms Templeman said.
“Let’s get the facts straight: official data shows our record investment to strengthen Medicare has stopped the freefall in bulk billing that was created under the Liberals.
“After we tripled the bulk-billing incentive for GPs, bulk-billing has started rising again in every state and territory – delivering an additional 5.8 million free visits to the GP in just 13 months.
“In Macquarie, 82.8% of all GP visits are bulk-billed since our additional investment in Medicare took effect, compared to the NSW figure of 81.1 per cent of all GP visits, which means there have been more than 30,000 additional bulk billed visits to the doctor in the Blue Mountains and Hawkesbury.
“Since the Albanese Government was elected, 32 new GPs have started billing Medicare locally.
“In our first year, 22 new GPs joined the area, eight more than joined during the Coalition's last year in office - or a 57 per cent increase.
“One of the reasons for the increase was that we designated the Blue Mountains and Hawkesbury a Distribution Priority Area (DPA) which provides additional incentives and supports for GPs and practices.
“The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) has called our Government’s investment in Medicare a “game changer”.
“The historic investment in bulk-billing builds on other ways the Albanese Government is strengthening Medicare to make health care more available and affordable, including making the largest boost to Medicare rebates in decades which lifted rebates by more in two years than the former government did in nine years.
“We’ve also funded and opened 87 Medicare Urgent Care Clinics, including in Penrith, so Australians can walk in and get bulk-billed urgent care, seven days a week, open early to late, without waiting hours in a busy hospital emergency department. I’m advocating for more of these locally.
“We’ve added more than 17,000 new doctors to the health system in two years, delivering the most new doctors in more than a decade, and we’ve boosted the number of doctors training to become GPs by almost 25%, fully funding the training of 4,800 new GPs between 2023 and 2025. The RACGP told me that the renewed interest in GP training places by young doctors was like “green shoots of hope”.
“We’ve also funded the Endometriosis and Pelvic Pain clinic in Rouse Hill, the first in the west to give women access a dedicated care and treatment options, and there is now free access to mental health care for the first time, from our Richmond Medicare Mental Health Service.
“On top of that, Macquarie residents have saved more than $6.2 million on 695,000 scripts because Labor has made medicines cheaper by cutting their cost, adding more medicines to the Pharmaceutical Benefit Scheme, lowering the Safety Net threshold and introducing 60-day prescriptions.
“These are significant steps forward in less than three years, and I look forward to Labor continuing to work hard to strengthen Medicare.”
