With living costs rising, PM Anthony Albanese is set to announce new health policies, including expanding urgent care clinics and boosting bulk billing to make GP visits cheaper.
For more, the President of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, Dr Michael Wright joins.
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With the cost of living at an all-time high, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is expected to announce a range of new health policies ahead of the federal election. It could mean expanding urgent healthcare clinics and boosting bulk billing across the country, making it cheaper to see your local GP. President of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, Dr Michael Wright, joins me now live in Sydney. Morning to you, Doctor. Labor is gearing up to make some major boosts to bulk billing. What will this mean for everyday Aussies? What do you expect in these changes to be? We're still waiting on detailed plans, but it's clear that patient funding for general practice needs a boost, and if we properly invest in Medicare, we can increase the bulk billing rates and we can also reduce the out-of-pocket costs for patients who aren't bulk billed, and both of those things are crucial. What do you see as a solution here, because figures out this morning show that the concession cardholders, kids, pensioners, they did benefit from this boost to bulk billing, but it's left a lot of working Aussies smack bang in the middle out-of-pocket still. What is the solution? Definitely, and as you say, most visits are still bulk billed, but more people are reporting it's more expensive and that they have facing out-of-pocket costs. We think what we need to do is boost the GP workforce, so by training more GPs, we'll make general practice care more affordable, but also we've got to make some significant investments in Medicare, particularly a boost that the rebate you get for longer consults, as if we've got higher rebates that reduces the out-of-pocket cost for people, particularly for those who need more time with their GP, and those who are living with chronic health conditions. Michael, what about the urgent care clinic, the pledge for that? Do you think, do you see that as a solution too? Look, we think it's probably better to invest across the board and almost every GP practice can provide urgent care, and we're still waiting to see an evaluation of those urgent care centres to see if they're valued for money. All right, even the experts are watching this space. Thank you so much, Dr Michael Wright. (logo whooshing) [BLANK_AUDIO]
