Healthcare shaping up to be election frontier as Labor, Coalition trade barbs on Medicare

Healthcare is shaping up to be a major Federal election battlefield, with both the Government and the Coalition beginning the year by trading barbs and accusing the other of having a worse record.

As the Opposition blames Labor for a “primary health care crisis” and increasingly unaffordable healthcare, the Government is set to use the lead-up to the election campaigning on its Medicare, PBS, and primary health record, and its plans to further strengthen the system.

Labor will also use Peter Dutton’s time as health minister during the Abott government – and his attempt to cut rebates and introduce mandatory fees for GP visits – as a key part of its warning to voters that the Coalition cannot be trusted with Medicare.

It comes as Labor keeps the door open to making further changes to bulk-billing, as the Government puts the finishing touches on its re-election pitch.

But opposition health spokeswoman Anne Ruston said Australians were suffering under Labor, and encouraged them to trust the Coalition.

“It has never been harder or more expensive for Australian patients to see a doctor and get the scripts they need,” she told The Nightly.

“The GP bulk-billing rate has collapsed by 11 per cent since Labor came to power. At the same time, out-of-pocket costs have risen to the highest level on record. Under Labor’s primary care crisis, Australians are covering 45 per cent more of the cost of seeing a doctor from their own pocket.

“This is forcing Australian families to make the difficult choice between going to see a doctor or paying the bills.”

As of October, the bulk billing rate was 77.3 per cent, down from the 88 per cent rate in May 2022. Labor’s changes to the bulk billing incentive have resulted in a gradual uptick.

Further changes are likely to be on the cards, with reports emerging this week that Labor was looking to announce lifting the bulk-billing incentive paid to GPs and pledge more urgent care clinics before the next election.

The Government is reportedly also mulling a second-term overhaul of how GPs are paid under Medicare.

Health Minister Mark Butler on Thursday left the door open to announcing further policy measures ahead of the next election – due by May – but would not be drawn on what that might look like.

“We’d like to do more in bulk billing. We’ve been committed to Medicare since we introduced it over 40 years ago… but we know there’s more to do,” he said.

“I don’t have anything more to announce today, but I’ve been very clear from the time I was appointed Health Minister that fixing the mess that we inherited in Medicare… would not take one term of Parliament. There’s more we want to do to deliver more doctors, more bulk billing, and more urgent care.”

And despite standing accused of running a “Mediscare” 2.0 campaign, Mr Butler on Thursday said he made “no apology” for pointing out Mr Dutton’s “pretty scary” record.

“The Liberal Party has been opposed to the idea of Medicare, as a universal heath insurance system, particularly that delivers bulk billed care when it can, from the time we tried to introduce it more than 40 years ago,” he said.

“Not only did Peter Dutton try to abolish bulk billing altogether, when he failed to do that, he introduced a rebate freeze that effectively froze the income of doctors for six years… He tried to introduce a fee for every Australian going to the local emergency department. He tried to increase the price of scripts.

“I make no apology for pointing out, as we lead into an election campaign, that on health care, on Medicare in particular, there is the clearest possible choice between a Labor Government… and a Liberal Party led by a man who doctors voted as the worst health minister in the history of Medicare.”

Labor’s latest healthcare reforms came into effect this week, with co-payments for PBS medicines now frozen. Mr Butler also announced on Thursday expanded PBS access for certain breast cancer patients, and extended Medicare payments for the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genetic tests – which cost up to $1200 without the rebate.