Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Minister for Health and Aged Care) Share this | Hansard source

That is a 6.7 per cent increase in the number of patients who are able to visit the doctor without having to pay. What that means is that we see an increase in the number of bulk-billed procedures, an increase in the level of bulk-billing. Critically, what we see as part of this is that there are multiple increases right across the Medicare schedule—new and amended items, increased items, all of these things that are occurring. What we have done is follow the advice of the doctors and the medical expert panels.

There is one important difference here between the two sides. When the member for Hindmarsh was the minister in this space, what we saw was a $580 million cut to mental health under Medicare. They slashed it—

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