Zed Seselja (ACT, Liberal Party, Assistant Minister for Finance, Charities and Electoral Matters) Share this | Hansard source

This 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 MBS. This 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 made during the remake process could affect patient entitlements to benefits under Medicare.

The bill also removes a number of provisions in the Health Insurance Act 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 thank senators and commend the bill to the Senate.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.