Mark Butler says increase to Medicare rebate ‘not off the table’

Health minister hits back at criticism from AMA that government report had no immediate recommendations to help Australians access more affordable care

The health minister, Mark Butler, says an increase to the Medicare rebate is not off the table, as the federal government tries to address problems in Australia’s healthcare system.

Butler has also hit back at criticisms a Medicare review initiated by the government did not have tangible recommendations to provide immediate relief.

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An improved My Health Record will be at centre of push to modernise primary healthcare

Better digital systems are to be discussed at national cabinet, while the AMA will call for stronger safeguards to protect patient data

The under-utilised and much-maligned My Health Record will be at the centre of a push to modernise primary healthcare, with better digital systems to be discussed at national cabinet.

The Strengthening Medicare Taskforce has agreed to improve and expand the use of the platform, with a broader range of health professionals able to access and add to digital health records a key recommendation of its report to drive improvements in primary care.

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Czech pair defend Australian Open doubles title; millions of RATs to expire in coming months – as it happened

This blog is now closed. Follow our next Australia news live blog here when it launches

There are reports of delayed and diverted flights at Sydney airport after an air control tower was evacuated.

Airservices Australia has told Nine that the incident was sparked by fumes emitting through the air conditioning system, resulting in two international flights being diverted.

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Cancer and other serious illnesses could go undiagnosed if specialists take on GP tasks, RACGP says

Australian peak GP body says ‘overall picture’ of patients’ health will be lost if Medicare changes split care across multiple providers

Australia’s peak GP group is concerned serious conditions such as cancer could be missed if general practice is deprioritised under looming changes to Medicare funding, saying parts of their roles should not be transferred to other health professionals.

As allied health groups suggest nurses, physiotherapists or pharmacists could perform some work currently done by GPs, the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners said it was “nervous” about patients visiting separate specialists without being monitored by a coordinating doctor.

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Doctors want Medicare rebates to double to stop GPs abandoning bulk-billing

Australian Medical Association calls for rebates to match the increased cost of living, but others say Australia must rethink healthcare as a whole

Medicare rebates to GPs need to double to stem the tide of doctors abandoning bulk billing, the Australian Medical Association has warned, while sounding the alarm over “catastrophically bad” access in rural and regional areas.

Doctors groups claim an increasing number of general practitioners can’t afford to offer bulk billing because federal payments have not kept pace with growing costs.

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Experts decry Labor’s ‘appalling’ plan cut to number of Medicare psychologist sessions

Health minister maintains reform is needed and other mental health advocates back wholesale changes to Better Access system

The federal government is under pressure to scrap controversial plans to halve the number of annual Medicare-backed psychologist appointments, amid claims it has disregarded a key finding of the top level report it relied upon to justify the decision.

The health minister, Mark Butler, maintains reform of the Better Access system is needed, saying the former government’s model led to ballooning wait times and denied access to new patients and those on low incomes.

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Higher Medicare rebates will not cure broken system that rewards ‘speed, not need’, report says

General practices have ‘steady profit margins’ and many are turning away from bulk billing, leaving poorer Australians without access to care, thinktank says

While doctors have called for higher Medicare rebates to meet the rising cost of providing care, a new report from thinktank the Grattan Institute argues that GPs have “steady profit margins” and that more drastic measures are needed to preserve Medicare.

General practices need to be overhauled to employ a team of health workers including physiotherapists and nurses to better manage rising rates of chronic and complex disease, the report led by Grattan health and aged care program director, Peter Breadon, said.

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News live: Australia supports inquiry into Iran death, Wong says; first majority female high court bench

Attorney general Mark Dreyfus has announced the appointment of justice Jayne Jagot to the high court. Follow the day’s news live

Queensland seeking partnerships from the federal government in renewable plan

The Queensland premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, was asked to clarify how long the state will keep exporting coal for:

There’s still going to be countries that need our coal and, of course, the metallurgical coal [that] is needed for steel production. Let’s be clear about that. Until there’s alternative to manufacturing steel, the world will still need metallurgical coal.

The plan is $62bn. We have a $6bn down payment on that … we’ve already got $11bn worth of private investment coming in.

But there will be even more coming in as well. So roughly, it will be around, over $30bn, between $30bn and $40bn we’re providing, but we’re seeking partnerships from the federal government.

Well, in Europe, of course, there’s a lot of reliance on gas coming in from the Ukraine and parts of Russia, is my understanding.

But what we’re doing here very clearly is [ensuring] that the hydro dams get built. And then, as the hydro dams come online, that’s when you start phasing down the reliance on coal-fired power stations.

We’re building sea walls as we speak. People are having to build their houses on 7-to-12-foot stilts above the ground because of the water coming underneath. Ancestral graves that the ABC has reported on are being washed away. This is happening in Queensland. It’s not just an island on the Pacific ocean. It is happening to Queenslanders. To Australians. And we all have a duty to look after one another.

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Rural Victorian town left without bulk-billing doctor after clinic closes doors

Thousands of patients in Mildura region in state’s north-west are unable to access medical records or GP care

About 15,000 patients in and around the rural city of Mildura in Victoria’s north-west have been left without a bulk-billing doctor and are struggling to access their medical records.

The Tristar medical group, which owns the Mildura clinic, went into voluntary administration in May, and after the sale of the clinic to another medical group fell through earlier in August, the clinic has closed its doors.

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Bulk-billing psychologists earn as little as $12 an hour, Australian peak body says

One psychologist was forced to close a thriving practice; another waives her fees for ‘desperate’ patients who can’t get a referral because of GP wait times

Psychologists who predominantly bulk bill are making as little as $12 an hour, which is why it “just isn’t an option for the majority of them”, the executive director of the Australian Association of Psychologists, Tegan Carrison, has said.

Almost half of all Australian adults will face mental ill-health at some point in their lives, but for the most vulnerable of them, accessing affordable mental healthcare has become more difficult as general practitioners and psychologists move away from bulk billing.

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Struggle to find bulk billing clinics for children prompts fears vaccination rates will fall

Poorer families set to be hit most, expert says, while single mothers routinely neglect their own medical needs to afford children’s care

As more GP clinics abandon or significantly reduce bulk billing, parents and carers say it is becoming harder to find a clinic that routinely bulk bills children.

In response to Guardian Australia’s series on the bulk billing crisis, more than 300 people shared their stories of how health care costs are adding pressure to family budgets on top of the rising costs of living.

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‘Unethical’ for GPs to charge to prescribe Covid antivirals, Australian charity says

Council on the Ageing says doctors who charge consultation fee for prescription for older people should be called out

Failing to bulk bill pensioners who require life-saving Covid-19 antivirals is “morally bankrupt” and “unethical”, the head of the national peak body for older Australians has said.

The Council on the Ageing chief executive, Ian Yates, said as growing numbers of general practitioners stop bulk billing, citing rising costs and low Medicare rebates, he is hearing “more and more examples of pensioners not being bulk-billed, especially people with the seniors healthcare card.”

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GPs ditching bulk billing as costs rise and Medicare rebates lag, survey shows

Nearly a quarter of doctors surveyed said they recently changed billing model, as peak body calls for higher rebates

Doctors are increasingly scrapping bulk billing, according to a survey of almost 500 GPs, with stalling Medicare rebates and the costs of running a practice cited as key reasons.

HealthEd, a private professional education company for doctors, surveyed 477 GPs on 2 August and found more than one in five – 22% – had recently changed their billing model.

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Medicare reforms are essential for creating fairer national abortion system, say advocates

Health experts are calling for Medicare item numbers for abortions and pregnancy counselling ahead of women’s safety ministers’ meeting

Medicare item numbers for abortions and pregnancy counselling along with specific funding for reproductive health are needed to create a fairer national abortion system, according to MSI Australia, formerly known as Marie Stopes.

State and federal women’s safety ministers are meeting on Friday for the first time since the Albanese government was elected. A 10-year plan to end violence against women and children, gender equity issues and the need for a specific plan for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women are expected to be discussed.

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Vulnerable Australians missing out on healthcare as insufficient Medicare rebate drives GP shortage

Fee-for-service funding model cannot keep up with cost of complex primary care needs, community organisations say

Vulnerable Australians are missing out on adequate healthcare because the Medicare rebate is failing to keep up with the costs of providing services, leading to a critical GP shortage, community health organisations say.

Not-for-profit community health organisation Cohealth has not been able to operate its street doctor service in Melbourne’s CBD – which provides a GP to people sleeping rough – for more than nine months, because it cannot find a doctor to work there.

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Pregnant women increasingly left out of pocket by Medicare antenatal consultations, doctors say

Peak GPs body calls for Medicare rebate to be extended to cover growing complexity of care for expectant mothers

Expectant mothers are unable to afford some antenatal consultations, the peak body representing GPs says, as doctors call on the federal government to raise the Medicare rebate.

Dr Karen Price, the president of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, says there have been significant advances in antenatal care over the years but Medicare patient rebates had not kept pace with the costs of providing it.

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‘Like hunting for unicorns’: Australians on the search for adequate, affordable mental healthcare

Countless inquiries have found the same problems afflicting the mental health system, but cost and access barriers still leave those seeking and providing care in despair

Many Australians experience the country’s mental health system as inadequate, dangerous and financially punishing, saying they often feel unsafe in hospitals, are dismissed by health professionals and are hit with prohibitive costs that government subsidies do not come close to covering.

And practitioners in turn have spoken of burnout and their frustration with misplaced funding, inadequate quick fixes, overmedication of patients and inconsistencies and duplication in the system, while acknowledging that many seeking help find the system “deeply traumatic”.

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Abortion drugs remain inaccessible, unsafe and unaffordable for many Australian women | Gina Rushton

A dearth of political leadership means abortion drugs remain inaccessible, unsafe and unaffordable for many women

It has been 24 years since the federal government chose the partial privatisation of Telstra over the rights of Australian women to safely terminate a pregnancy with abortion drugs. In 1996, anti-abortion independent Brian Harradine, who held the balance of power in the Senate, agreed to support John Howard’s one-third float of the telecommunications company if the government amended legislation to give the health minister veto to prohibit the import, manufacture or use of abortion drug RU486 (mifepristone).

A perpetual dearth of political leadership in the subsequent quarter century has meant the drugs remain inaccessible, unaffordable and at times unsafe for many women in Australia outside of a certain income or major city.

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More than 2.5 million people have opted out of My Health Record

New figures show that during the three-month extension about 1.4 million people opted out

More than 2.5 million Australians have opted out of the My Health Record system, new figures show.

The figures, revealed in Senate estimates on Wednesday, show almost one in 10 Australians eligible for Medicare have opted out of the controversial system.

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