Michelle Ananda-Rajah (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister representing the Minister for Health and Ageing, Senator McAllister. This year, delivering cost-of-living relief and affordable health care has been a key priority of the Albanese Labor government. How has the government strengthened Medicare and delivered on its commitments to deliver better access to health care for all Australians?

Jenny McAllister (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you, Senator Ananda-Rajah, and I commend you for your ongoing in the health care of Australians. This year the Australian people voted for a government that would stand up for them and would stand up for Medicare. And that's what they got. They got it with the Albanese Labor government, and we are making the largest ever investment in the history of Medicare—an 8½ billion-dollar investment—and that started to kick in just a few weeks ago. This will create a new incentive payment for practices that bulk-bill every patient and expand bulk-billing across Australia. It will triple the number of bulk-billing practices and mean that nine out of 10 GP visits will be bulk-billed by 2030. That is what our year of delivering for Australians looks like. We think that approximately 75 per cent of general practices would be financially better off if they moved to fully bulk-billing, and we know that more than a thousand practices have already indicated that they will stop charging a gap fee and move to being a fully bulk-billed service.

The only card that you should need when you go to the doctor should be your Medicare card, and that is what our expansion of bulk-billing is delivering. It's what it is delivering, and it is a rebuild of bulk-billing after a decade of coalition neglect. It is a stark contrast to the record of those opposite. Bulk-billing rates were in freefall under the coalition's six-year freeze of Medicare rebate, which ripped billions out of Medicare. Compare it with our first term, when we delivered $3½ billion in 2023, which restored access to bulk-billing to the 11 million patients that it covered. This year, we are delivering for all Australians with the largest ever investment in Medicare, and it will provide real cost-of-living assistance to families right across the country.

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Anandah-Rajah, first supplementary?

Michelle Ananda-Rajah (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In its first term, the Albanese Labor government delivered 87 Medicare urgent care clinics so Australians could get the urgent treatment they need. How has the government continued to roll out urgent care clinics across Australia, and how is this improving access to health care across Australia?

Jenny McAllister (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You're right, Senator. We are expanding the availability of free urgent health care by opening another 47 Medicare urgent care clinics. That's 14 new clinics in NSW, nine in Victoria, 10 in Queensland, six in Western Australia, three in South Australia, three in Tasmania, one in the Northern Territory and one in the ACT. These services are a game changer for families right across the country. Australians have made more than two million visits to Labor's free Medicare urgent care clinics. One-third of patients are under the age of 15. Nearly half of the patients who attended a Medicare urgent care clinic would have used a hospital emergency department if no clinic had been available. Thirty per cent of visits to Medicare urgent care clinics have taken place on weekends, and 25 per cent of patients have attended after 5 pm on a weekday. These clinics are filling a gap.

Sue Lines (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Anandah-Rajah, second supplementary?

Michelle Ananda-Rajah (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Albanese Labor government delivered cost-of-living relief to all Australians by strengthening Medicare and cutting the cost of medicines on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme in its first term. What further action has the government taken in 2025 to help more Australians access cheaper medicines via the PBS?

Jenny McAllister (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Our government is slashing the cost of medicines. We delivered for Australians everywhere when we passed that cheaper medicines bill. From next year, you'll pay no more than $25 when you're filling a prescription on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. That is a 20 per cent cut to the maximum cost of medicines under the PBS, and it means that Australians will save more than $200 million a year. We want the PBS to be the very best that it can be, offering more Australians effective and affordable treatments. On 1 October, Australians affected by breast cancer, rare kidney disease and a range of other conditions received access to even cheaper medicines on the PBS, and, for the first time in, unbelievably, 30 years, we listed new contraceptive pills on the PBS. These listings are life changing because, instead of paying thousands of dollars, Australians will have cheaper access to the medicines that they need.

Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

With that, I ask that further questions be placed on notice.