Labor welcomes the overdue ending of the Morrison Government’s six-year Medicare freeze, as confirmed in the budget.
Only last week Labor announced that we would end the freeze on Medicare rebate indexation on 1 July 2019, as one of the first acts of a Shorten Labor Government.
We are pleased the government has followed our lead – meaning the Medicare rebates for 100 GP items – including family counselling, urgent after-hours care, mental health care and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island health checks – will start going up again.
Labor has been fighting for the end to the Liberals’ freeze from the moment it was introduced, because we know how important our doctors are as the frontline of our health care system.
Labor will match every dollar of funding to general practice in this year’s budget – including the $448.5 million to support GPs to deliver coordinated care targeted at older Australians, and $201.5 million to boost Practice Incentive Program (PIP) payments to support doctors to continue to deliver quality care.
Investment in primary care is critical for the future of our health care system – and given the growing rates of chronic disease across the Australian population, GPs play a pivotal role in prevention, early detection and keeping people out of hospitals.
Unfortunately our hardworking doctors have been forced to do more and more with less under the Liberals’.
Labor will invest in general practice, we will increase funding for health and deliver a better health care system for all Australians.
FRIDAY, 5 APRIL 2019