This is part 2 in a video series trying to explain every policy announced in the 2023 Federal Budget.

Strengthening Medicare

One of the four major goals of this government budget was said to be Medicare. Which seems to mean access to affordable healthcare when needed, and ensuring health workers - including doctors - are able to deliver it.

The reason the Labor government considers it one of their major goals of the budget is due to their belief in medicare being the foundation of the primary care system, and claim that medicare requires significant restructuring to meet the needs of the 21st century.

I put a list of their new policies in three categories: Access to Medicine, Access to Medical Care, and improved Healthcare infrastructure.

MEDICAL CARE ACCESS

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$3.5 billion dollars has been spent to triple bulk billing incentives for patients aged under 16 and commonwealth concession card holders, allowing face-to-face GP consultations and telehealth to 11 million people without any out-of-pocket expense according to the AAP.

Bulk billing means that instead of having to pay for a medical service the government will cover the cost completely. However not all doctors accept bulk billing, so tripling the bulk billing incentive will mean that more doctors might choose to allow you to access them this way.

Australia’s healthcare system is getting many improvements in the new federal budget, and this is but one of them.

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The federal budget has announced investments in complex and chronic care pathways by expanding items on the Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS).

The MBS is a list of health services subsidised by the Australian government that allows most of the costs of a listed service to be covered by medicare. For example if the fee to see your GP is $110, then Medicare might cover $76. It is one of the main ways medical care is able to stay affordable for most Australians including myself. 

In line with recommendations from the Independent Medical Services Advisory Committee, or MSAC, $170.6 million dollars is being spent to introduce new services to the schedule. This includes but is not limited to.

$81.2 million to genetically test whether parents planning pregnancy are carriers of Cystic Fibrosis, Spinal Muscular Atrophy, or Fragile X syndrome.

$32.6 million for Positron Emission Tomography or PET to help determine the extent of rare and uncommon cancers in patients.

And many more changes

The Wonders of new medical science and its ability to treat chronic illness is not truly appreciated unless it's made accessible, so it's promising to see the MBS expanded in this way.

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IMPROVEMENTS TO HEALTHCARE INFRASTRUCTURE

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The budgets changes to medicare have been labelled a “game-changer” by RACGP President Dr.Nicole Higgins

$143.9 million dollars will be spent on non-emergency healthcare outside GP hours including $93.4 million extending primary health networks (PHN) after hours program by a further 2 years. 

PHNs are essentially the war rooms of healthcare, keeping all the local clinics linked up and working efficiently, and commissioning services when gaps in healthcare need to be addressed. 

Extending the after hours program intends to reduce the burden of hospitals by giving people access to GP services outside of normal working hours, which if you have ever been in an emergency room, is more than much needed. 

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Emergency rooms are miserable. You go in there for a broken thumb and you have to spend hours with sobering alcoholics, People in mental crisis, and vomit-inducing gore. With this new reform, you might be visiting it a lot less. 

$358.5 million will be invested in a new service called Medicare Urgent Care Clinics. 58 will be built around the country, 8 more than promised during the election.

These Clinics are considered a new model of care. Built to reduce burdens on hospitals and based in existing offices, this service will accept walk-in patients after normal hours to treat non-life threatening injuries that require urgent care like fractures.

Being in existing centres was pushed by the Royal Australian College of GPs, who wanted GPs to get more access to people with acute illnesses.

For anyone who has had to stake it out in the hospital emergency room, announcements like these have come not a moment too soon. 

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Australian healthcare has an internet problem. Not like you have an internet problem, with your doom scrolling and hyperpop cat remixes. The Commonwealth's digital health Record system, known as My Health Record, or MHR, is severely outdated, underused, and hard to work with. 

The first electronic health record called PCEHR was made in 2012 to save GPs time collecting patient information. Its name was changed to MHR in 2015 under the Turnball government. 

The record system lacked many basic features, with  Radiology college SEO Mark Nevin saying in a 2016 Senate inquiry that the system didn’t even have the technical capacity to store images, including X-rays, which can make it difficult to diagnose conditions like black lung as historical records are harder to come by. 

The Australian Financial Review reported in 2019 that ‘My Health Records’ bad UI, low participation, and overcomplicated nature has meant that whatever records are on the system are not being effectively updated or used, reducing information GPs have on patients. 

What is being done to fix this? Well in the 2023/24 federal budget the Albanese Labor government committed $429 million to modernise the My Health Records system, intending to turn system use from a tenth of the time to becoming the rule rather than the exception.

This includes modernising information and billing systems from the old formats, eliminating ones no longer in use, and ensuring the MHR is well entrenched in the medical system.

Will medical muck ups be a thing of the past? Hopefully with these changes the Abysmal problem of digital health information will no longer plague practitioners and patients alike.