Julie-Ann Campbell (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Health Legislation Amendment (Miscellaneous Measures No. 1) Bill 2025. When we talk about Medicare, what we know about Medicare is that it is the embodiment of Labor values. It is who we are, and it represents what we care about when it comes to health, which is ensuring that it doesn't matter what's in your pay packet. No matter what you earn, you and your family should have access to world-class medical care with just your Medicare card. And this is not something that we just say. This is not something that we just talk about. This is something that we do every single day. We do it when we talk about the institution of urgent care clinics. We do it when we see urgent care clinics—more and more of them—pop up around our suburbs to make sure that people have the care they need close to home. We do it when we open up more Medicare mental health clinics, and we have one coming to the south side in Brisbane very shortly. We do it when we invest in bulk-billing so more people can access critical GP services, again closer to home. We created Medicare, and Labor works every day to make it even better.

Medicare is a vast system. I don't think that any of us, when we hand over our little green card to the medical receptionist, think about how far the services stretch and how the system is administered. That is understandable, because after all, when you visit an urgent care clinic with your injured child, you have other things on your mind, and, when you go to your bulk-billed GP because you're feeling under the weather, you're not thinking about the back-end systems behind your visit. You're just grateful, as you dig into your pocket for your Medicare card, that you have one less bill to pay. This is the foundation of Medicare—that, when you and your family are affected by illness or injury, you shouldn't have to break the bank to receive high-quality health care. But it is worth looking at the system as a whole. It helps to put into context just how valuable Medicare is to Australians. In 2004-05, the value of Medicare services delivered was $475.2 million. The total amount of benefits paid in the same period was $32.4 billion, and this is for services ranging from GP visits to obstetrics, diagnostic imaging, optometry, allied health and radiotherapy—and the list goes on and on.

I'm incredibly proud to be part of a Labor government that believes in universal health care and continues to strengthen Medicare to ensure the scheme is both robust and sustainable. At times, that means fine-tuning of Medicare's administrative systems, and that is what the Health Legislation Amendment (Miscellaneous Measures No. 1) Bill 2025 does. It will ensure better administration and delivery of the system that we all rely on.

As its name suggests, the bill covers a range of reforms. The first is implementing the automation of Medicare provider numbers. This is the second recommendation in the Independent Review of Australia's Regulatory Settings Relating to Overseas Health Practitioners, otherwise known as the Kruk review. The review was commissioned by National Cabinet in September 2022, with the aim of recommending measures to streamline and simplify health practitioner regulation. The overarching goal was to decrease the skills shortages in vital health professions while maintaining required quality and safety standards. In short, we need our health professionals to have stronger skills and to have the support to do it. The resulting report in August 2023, from Robyn Kruk AO, acknowledged persistent shortages in the registered health practitioner workforce, and these shortages led to some communities not having access to a GP, a nurse led clinic or a dental or mental health service within a 60-minute drive. Other negative effects of the shortages included critical health services such as maternity or dental being closed down in some places and wait times for specialists blowing out, in some cases to as long as four years.

The issuance of Medicare provider numbers is currently part of the lengthy and time-consuming process of registering to provide Medicare services. An MPN enables the health practitioner to claim, refer or request Medicare services, and health practitioners require an MPN for each practice location. MPNs are currently allocated by the Chief Executive Medicare via the Human Services (Medicare) Act 1973. The report recommended automating the issuance of MPNs to speed up the approval processes and result in more practitioners being available to provide services more quickly, and that's what this is all about—making sure that we have more practitioners and that they can provide services to the communities that need them most in an efficient and effective way. This bill will amend the Health Insurance Act 1973 to establish the function of allocating MPNs within the act, enabling the Chief Executive Medicare to approve automation, and will also validate MPNs previously issued automatically. What this means in practice is that the Chief Executive Medicare can approve the use of computer programs to allocate MPNs. However, it's important to note that a decision to refuse a health practitioner an MPN must be reviewed by a qualified employee of Services Australia.

The second focus of this bill is streamlining private health insurance rebate payments. Each year, over $7 billion is reimbursed to private health insurers under the premiums reduction scheme. This rebate helps reduce the cost of health insurance premiums for Australians, making private health care more accessible and more affordable. However, Services Australia and the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing identified that some parts of the registration and claims processing system have not been operating consistently with the requirements of the Private Health Insurance Act 2007 since the scheme began. The bill will amend the Private Health Insurance Act to correct the operation of registration and claims systems. It introduces a self-assessment model for insurers claiming reimbursements. It will also align the registration requirements for individual participants with the current system requirements. The Chief Executive Medicare will be empowered to introduce automated decision-making capabilities to manage registration and claims more efficiently and more effectively. The bill also implements a safeguard, with assurance that any overpayments resulting from system errors or process issues can be recovered. These reforms are designed to uphold the objectives of the premiums reduction scheme and will ensure that participants are properly registered and that rebate payments are made lawfully.

The third part of this bill will amend the Health Insurance Act 1973 to resolve key legal and operational issues and delay the commencement of changes introduced by the Health Insurance Legislation Amendment (Assignment of Medicare Benefits) Act. The concept of assignment of benefit has long been a cornerstone of Medicare. It allows patients to assign their right to a Medicare benefit to a medical provider, private health insurer or approved billing agent, enabling the government to make payments directly on their behalf. The assignment of benefits act was introduced to strengthen the integrity of this process. It streamlined how benefits are assigned and introduced digital options to replace outdated, paper based systems, because this is a system that we all care about and it's a system that needs to be kept up to date as technology moves forward and as that technology allows people who need Medicare to access it more effectively and more efficiently. These reforms were essential to modernise Medicare and ensure it remains responsive to the needs of patients and providers alike. Importantly, the bill will delay the commencement of schedule 1 of the assignment of benefits act, which was originally set to begin in January 2026. The new start date of 1 July 2026 will give both industry and consumers the time they need to prepare and adapt to the changes, particularly where private sector software must be updated to reflect the new assignment processes. Bulk-billing will continue under current arrangements, with additional incentives commencing from the 1st of next month for bulk-billing services. These reforms are supported by $15.2 million worth of funding in 2025-26, and this is being directed towards updating Services Australia's systems and delivering education and communication to ensure stakeholders are ready for the transition to digital assignment.

This bill safeguards the Albanese Labor government's $7.2 billion commitment to bulk-billing incentive payments. It ensures that these incentives will not be undermined by non-compliant business software or administrative delays. It ensures that these amendments are here to stay. The bill's final amendment to the Health Insurance Act 1973 enhances the Bonded Medical Program. This program provides a Commonwealth supported place in—

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