Medicare will undergo one of the most significant overhauls in decades when the Federal Budget is handed down next week.
The government has flagged $2.2 billion in the Budget to improve services including staff levels, pharmacy services and out-of-hours care.
The government has also promised to clamp down on spiralling costs in the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS).
The bundle of funding is designed to take the pressure off hospitals and primary care providers such as GPs. Doctors will also be able to access funding to employ more allied healthcare staff in their clinics.
In a press conference to announce the funding, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said there were three main pillars to the reforms.
“Firstly, supporting workplaces to work at top of their scope including pharmacists, nurses and paramedics,” he said. “We need to provide pharmacists with the opportunity to deliver services that they are capable of that will provide support and income for community pharmacies but it will also take pressure off our GPs and off that system in the primary health care network.
“We also want to expand the nursing workforce to improve access to primary care.
“The third is improving access to and delivery of after-hours primary care.
“That will include an incentive for doctors, for GPs to stay open for longer hours that will be included in our budget.”
Among the new policies are:
General Practice in Aged Care Incentive
This payment is an incentive for general practitioners to attend residential aged care homes.
Residents without a regular GP and practice will be matched with one by PHN. From 1 August 2024, this incentive will replace the extended GP Aged Care Access Incentive.
Expanding the nursing workforce
The government plans to encourage a target of 500 nurses who have left the workforce to return and support 6000 nursing student placements.
The placement funding will go towards administration and logistics of supporting the placements across the primary care sector.
After-hours access
The government plans to improve out-of-hours health services to take the pressure off emergency departments and hospitals.
Measures to achieve this include funding for out-of-hours GP services and clinics, addressing service gaps in regional areas, and more support for Primary Health Networks (PHN) and Healthdirect.
PHN will tailor services for culturally and linguistically diverse Australians and the homeless to improve healthcare and reduce demand in emergency departments.
The government will also support PHN to employ allied health and nursing services so they can offer more holistic treatment.
Pharmacy support
From 1 January the government will expand the National Immunisation Program to pharmacies. Eligible patients will be able to get immunisations on the program for free.
Pharmacists will also be included in the Opioid Dependence Treatment program. This is designed to give patients another option to access treatment outside GP clinics and hospitals.
My Medicare
My Medicare will be a voluntary patient registration model to provide practices with comprehensive information about their patients.
GPs may be given financial incentives when a patient signs up to the system.
NDIS
Mr Albanese also pledged to curb spending on the NDIS.
Projections have the service costing $97 billion in a decade with growth up to 14 per cent a year.
The government plans to bring that growth estimate down to 8 per cent.
“We know that the trajectory of NDIS expenditure is just not sustainable into the future,” Mr Albanese said. “There are obvious issues with the way that the scheme is being administered.”
However, the government plans to spend money to save money, allocating a further $720 million to the National Disability Insurance Agency – which administers the NDIS – to boost the workforce and streamline the scheme.
What do you think of the proposed reforms? Will they affect your healthcare? Why not share your opinion in the comments section below?
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How about Scrubbing the Olympics and putting that mammoth waste of money into the Australian Health System. The Olympics run at a loss, Cost the Citizens of whatever City in whatever Country they take place in a stack of money, not to mention the resumptions of housing and land and the displacement of the average citizen, all for the glorification of Politicians and the Elite Few. The many ill people dying early due to postponements of operations and the massive number of patients dying in Hospital corridors due to ambulance ramping will be very happy to know that the Stadium at Woolloongabba will be knocked down and rebuilt at a cost of some $3 billion to include an extra 5.5 Thousand Seats. Wow, that’s money well spent. What a bloody joke. Absolutely disgraceful. A discussed Jacka.
The Government needs to investigate the companies supplying “so called services” to the people because there are so many of these companies ripping off the Government as there is no check on these people it’s a disgrace ripping off the Taxpayers.
I agree Judith, the NDIS is a prime example. I have a friend who has multiple health needs and the cost the providers charge the NDIS is horrifying.
Does this overhaul mean we don’t have to pay GP’s for an 5 minute appointment?
I hope so Judith, I recently had to get a referral. Less than two minutes on the phone and the doctor charged me $90!