Supporting Medicare

I will always fight for Medicare to ensure every Canberran has access to the healthcare they need.

The Albanese Labor Government is continuing to strengthen and improve our health care system: Free GP visits, new Medicare Urgent Care Clinics, supporting and expanding the PBS, and embedding new mental health services.

Free GP Visits

Labor will deliver the biggest ever boost to Medicare to ensure more Canberrans can see a GP for free.

We want all Australians to have access to see a doctor with their Medicare card - not their credit card.

That's why Labor is investing $8.5 billion to strengthen Medicare, delivering an additional 18 million bulk billed GP visits every year by 2030.

Here are the quick facts on the PM's announcement on the weekend:

✔ We will boost Medicare payments to general practices that bulk bill every patient

✔ Labor will triple the bulk billing incentive for all Australians meaning GPs can bulk
bill everyone

✔ We will train thousands more nurses and doctors to meet community demand

Under the Albanese Labor Government's investments, we have seen gradual improvement in bulk billing rates in the ACT, but there is more work to do.

Canberrans often raise with me how hard it is to see a bulk billing doctor.

I've listened to this feedback and worked with my colleagues inside government to deliver this record investment in Medicare to help them live healthier lives and reduce pressure on their hip pockets.

But all of this is on the line.

At this election, Australians face a choice about who to trust with protecting and strengthening Medicare.

A stronger Medicare with more bulk billing for all Australians under Anthony Albanese, or cuts to Medicare under Peter Dutton.

We know Peter Dutton's track record. When he was Health Minister:

❌ Peter Dutton tried to end bulk billing.

❌ Peter Dutton cut $50 billion from hospitals—including funding that supports Canberra’s healthcare

system.

❌ Peter Dutton attempted to introduce a GP tax.

❌ Peter Dutton was voted the worst Health Minister in Medicare’s history by Australia’s doctors.

This election is a make-or-break moment for Medicare.

Peter Dutton tried to destroy Medicare before - don't let him do it again.

Medicare Urgent Care Clinics

A re-elected Albanese Labor Government will build on its historic investment in Medicare to expand the availability of free, urgent care, with a $644 million commitment to open another 50 Medicare Urgent Care Clinics, with more clinics in every state and territory.

New South Wales: 14 clinics
Victoria: 12 clinics
Queensland: 10 clinics
Western Australia: 6 clinics
South Australia: 3 clinics
Tasmania: 3 clinics
Northern Territory: 1 clinic
Aust. Capital Territory: 1 clinic
Australia: 50 Medicare Urgent Care Clinics

This includes a new Clinic right here in Woden.

The Albanese Labor Government went to the last election promising to open 50 Medicare Urgent Care Clinics, and we have delivered 87 clinics.

The new clinics will open during the 2025-26 financial year. A full list of the locations of the additional 50 Medicare Urgent Care Clinics is available here.

Once all of Labor’s clinics are open, 4 in 5 Australians will live within a 20-minute drive of a Medicare Urgent Care Clinic, according to analysis by the Department of Health and Aged Care.

And all you'll need is your Medicare card, not your credit card.

Cheaper medicines

The Albanese Government is delivering cheaper medicines to ease pressure on household budgets, freezing the maximum cost of a PBS medicine, making Australia a destination for clinical trials so Australians get early access to life-changing medicines, and adding more medicines to the PBS.

$469.1 million to reduce patient costs and improve access to medicines, with more funding for Dose Administration Aids and a one-year freeze on the maximum co-payment of a PBS prescription for everyone with a Medicare card and a five-year freeze for pensioners and other concession cardholders. So medicines stay cheaper, instead of rising with inflation.
$3.4 billion to list new medicines on the PBS, including for four thousand eight hundred Australians with cardiac disease that will benefit from the listing of Tafamidis (Vyndamax®) and mavacamten (Camzyos®). Without subsidy, patients could expect to pay $122,000 or $30,000 a year, respectively, but instead will pay only $31.60, or just $7.70 for pensioners and concession cardholders.
$18.8 million to make Australia a destination for clinical trials, so Australians get early access to life-changing medicines. A national one stop shop for clinical trials will streamline the health and medical research, make it easier for patients to participate in clinical trials for emerging treatments.
$1.4 billion over 13 years in ground-breaking new health and medical research through the Medical Research Future Fund, including an additional $411.6 million for low survival cancers and reducing health inequities.