The government will talk up its healthcare credentials by arguing billions of dollars in Medicare incentives are already yielding results as parliament resumes for another sitting week.
On Saturday major subsidies took effect, aimed at making nine in every 10 doctors appointments bulk billed by 2030.
The $8.5 billion policy was a key plank of Labor’s re-election pitch earlier this year, but some doctors have said they won’t take up the new incentives because it still won’t be cost-effective to offer free appointments.
Under the plan, payments which previously incentivised GPs to bulk bill children and concession card holders have been expanded to all Australians.
A new reward payment has also been set up for clinics where every doctor bulk bills every patient for normal appointments.
Over the weekend Health Minister Mark Butler released new data showing more than 1000 practices had expressed interest in becoming fully bulk-billing.
More figures released on Monday show that although the majority of clinics planning to offer free appointments to all patients are in cities, regional and rural areas will benefit as well.
Of the practices looking to expand bulk billing, 622 were in metropolitan areas, 108 were in regional centres, 73 were in large rural towns, and 248 were in smaller towns or tiny remote communities.
The electorates of Ballarat in Victoria, and Rankin and Hinkler in Queensland, are expected to see the largest increase in the number of bulk billing GP clinics.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will be back in parliament spruiking the changes, after attending a series of key global summits in Malaysia and South Korea last week.
The Opposition’s internal dramas over climate and energy policy will also be in full view over coming days, after the Nationals voted to abandon their policy of net zero emissions by 2050, setting up a fight with the Liberals who are yet to finalise their approach to the issue.
Liberal MPs insist they aren’t beholden to their regional colleagues on the issue, and Nationals Leader David Littleproud has said he will respect his coalition partner’s internal processes.
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