The government announced a $3.5 billion investment into upgrading the medicare system.
👉 Background: Ever noticed how bulk-billing at medical practices have almost become extinct? And demand at hospitals has become an all time high.
👉 What happened: In yesterday's Federal budget, the government announced a $3.5 billion investment into upgrading the medicare system. The funding will go towards tripling the incentives for children, pensioners and other concession holders - that’s 11.6 million Australians.
👉 What else: The goal is to reduce the growing pressures on GP clinics and hospitals. But it will also hopefully address one of biggest contributors to the clogged system - frozen Medicare rebates.
💡Medicare rebate is the term used for the amount paid by the government to GPs and medical practitioners for looking after us. When GP’s bulk-bill the cost of an appointment, it means we don’t have to bear the cost as its fully covered by the government.
💡But despite sky high inflation, the Medicare rebate hasn’t really changed much. Last year, the rebate went up by 1.6% while inflation was up 7.8%. As a result, doctors were no longer offering bulk-billing because it’s no longer commercially viable.
💡This means that:
So, hopefully these changes to the Medicare system will sort things out once and for all.
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