00:00 In November, the government tripled the incentives for GPs who are bulk billing children under
00:07 16, pensioners and concession card holders in an attempt to make bulk billing more affordable
00:13 for doctors. Now, the government says 360,000 extra bulk billed appointments were claimed
00:19 in the first two months alone. That's a 2% increase nationally. We did hear from Health
00:25 Minister Mark Butler who says those figures were even higher in areas with previously
00:30 low rates, particularly disadvantaged and regional areas recording some of the highest
00:36 rates. We did hear from the President of the Australian Medical Association, Steve Robson.
00:41 He says while this is having a positive impact, more investment is needed in Medicare overall.
00:47 Here's what he had to say.
00:49 We know that for decades, successive governments have neglected Medicare and it really has
00:54 fallen into disrepair. It's going to take a lot of work, a big commitment and it's going
00:59 to take investment to bring Medicare back to where we think it should be and make healthcare
01:04 accessible and affordable for all Australians. And one of the problems is at the moment,
01:10 general practice has been so neglected, young doctors don't want to be general practitioners.
01:15 So we're hoping that these incentives will make that an attractive career path again.
01:19 We'll have more GPs training and that will ease pressure on the system and allow Australians
01:24 to get the care they need.
01:27 Now the Consumers Health Forum says Australians who don't qualify for this scheme are finding
01:32 it really hard to find a doctor and that the cost is making many miss out. And they also
01:39 say that while this is having a positive impact in particularly regional areas, they're still
01:43 not seeing that trickle into metropolitan areas.
01:47 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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