Coalition defends health funding

The Coalition will use a taxpayer-funded government website to counteract Labor claims of cuts to Medicare ahead of the election.

Health Minister Greg Hunt. Picture: Alan Barber

The Coalition will use a taxpayer-funded government website to counteract Labor claims of cuts to Medicare and public hospitals ahead of the election.

However, both sides of politics face calls for more primary care funding and will need to negotiate with the states before any public hospital deal is finalised.

After Labor announced a Shorten government would restore indexation to all Medicare items within 50 days, Health Minister Greg Hunt added “health funding facts” to the Health Department website.

On the website, people can now search Medicare, hospital funding and drug subsidies for their postcode or local hospital since 2012-13 and, according to Mr Hunt, “see how they are benefiting from the Liberal ­National government’s strong track record on guaranteeing ­essential health services for all Australians”.

Labor froze Medicare indexation before it lost government and the incoming Coalition ­extended it after the failure of its GP co-payment policy. The government has thawed or scheduled the reindexation of items across most areas of healthcare, most recently announcing a 2020 resumption of increases for diagnostic imaging but Labor has promised more.

With an election only weeks away, Mr Hunt took to Twitter yesterday to accuse Mr Shorten of lying, prompting Labor health spokeswoman Catherine King to accuse the minister of lying. The major parties are still under pressure from health groups, including the Australian Medical Association and Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, for a real increase in rebates.

AMA president Tony Bartone told Sky News: “Ending the freeze is but one part of the discussion here.

“We need to understand that in terms of ­investment into the health system, investment into general practice, there’s been a significant disinvestment over the past decade or so.”

The government points to ­record bulk-billing rates but has also had to promise action on out-of-pocket costs for specialist services, which some groups blame on low Medicare rebates and poor health cover.