Luke Howarth (Petrie, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Community Housing, Homelessness and Community Services) Share this | Hansard source

It's great to rise and speak on the Health Insurance Amendment (Administration) Bill 2020. I want to thank the member for McMahon and the member for Higgins for speaking on this bill. As the member for Higgins just said, the Morrison government invested some $24 billion last year in health. We've seen, during this COVID period, bulk-billing increase and telehealth also increase. I want to take this opportunity to thank all the frontline workers, GPs and specialists and all health professionals in my own electorate of Petrie for the great job they do, day in, day out.

The bill amends the Health Insurance Act 1973 to make minor changes to Australian government administrative processes relating to Medicare. These changes do not affect the existing arrangements for patients or health professionals. The bill removes the annual sunset period for the regulations which prescribe the table of medical, diagnostic imaging and pathology services covered by the Medicare Benefits Schedule. And, in relation to diagnostic imaging, I know that, in my own electorate of Petrie, we're about to install an MRI machine at the Redcliffe Hospital that is publicly funded by the federal government. We announced this over two years ago and are just waiting for the state government to build the room, which they'll do soon.

This bill removes the requirement for the Medicare regulations to be remade each year so patients can continue to be eligible to receive benefits through Medicare. This change will reduce unnecessary administrative work and mitigate the risk that an error during the remake process could affect patients' entitlements to benefits under Medicare. The bill also removes a number of provisions in the Health Insurance Act 1973 which are no longer required as they do not reflect current administrative practices. This includes removing references to the establishment and operation of the inactive Medicare Benefits Advisory Committee, removing calculations relating to Medicare benefits which are no longer used, and removing references to historical requirements for optometrists, to reflect modern administrative arrangements.

I commend the bill to the House.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.

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