Albanese pledges $200m for 24/7 health line to go national
Australians will get 24/7 free healthcare advice and after-hours GP phone appointments through a revamped national helpline, should Labor be re-elected. SEE HOW IT WILL WORK
Federal Election
Don't miss out on the headlines from Federal Election. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Australians will get 24/7 free healthcare advice and after-hours GP telehealth appointments through a revamped national helpline dubbed 1800MEDICARE, should Labor be re-elected.
The $204.5m commitment to nationalise the existing Healthdirect service and expand it to every state and territory is designed to take pressure off emergency departments by redirecting patients to more appropriate services.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is seeking to put health at the centre of the final week of the election campaign with the announcement in the battleground area of Western Sydney ahead of the last leader’s debate on Sunday night.
Mr Albanese said the 1800MEDICARE phone service would complement Labor’s existing promises to deliver more bulk billing and free urgent care clinics if elected on May 3.
“Life isn’t 9 to 5,” he said. “With 1800MEDICARE, neither is health care.”
“Whether your family needs urgent or ongoing health care, under Labor, Medicare will be there for all Australians, in every community.”
Under Labor’s plan the national service would launch from January 1 next year.
It would provide things like emergency prescriptions for regular medication, as well as treatments for an illness or injury, including referring callers to bulk-billed telehealth appointments with an after-hours GP.
Labor has estimated about 250,000 Australians would avoid an “unnecessary” trip to a hospital emergency department due to the free urgent GP care provided by 1800MEDICARE.
Health Minister Mark Butler said the 24/7 health advice line and after-hours GP telehealth service would “be there” for Australians when illness or injury strikes their family.
Labor’s latest health policy plank comes at the start of the final week of an election campaign set to go down to the wire, with both leaders crisscrossing three jurisdictions on Saturday.
Mr Albanese’s campaign began in the must-hold seat of Chisholm in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs where he was greeted by a group of children studying Mandarin at a community language school with a “ni hao Prime Minister”.
He then travelled to the marginal Liberal seat of Bass for a BBQ with Labor volunteers in Launceston, before finishing the day in his own Sydney electorate of Grayndler where he pledged $10 million to the Reverend Bill Crews Foundation, which provides meals and other assistance to vulnerable Australians.
Mr Albanese was again asked to rule out future changes to negative gearing and capital gains tax concessions, to which he said “the proof is in the pudding”.
“I’ve been asked a lot about that and I gave the same answer in 2022 as I’ve said today,” he said.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton started Saturday in Cairns, alongside the LNP’s Leichhardt candidate Jeremy Neal, before jetting to Darwin as he turned the conversation back to crime and safety.
Mr Dutton, who flew into the Northern Territory specifically for a roundtable with small business owners impacted by crime, was greeted by shoppers and shopkeepers as he walked through the Karama Shopping Centre.
More Coverage
Originally published as Albanese pledges $200m for 24/7 health line to go national
Three biggest election issues revealed
Voters in some of Victoria’s key battleground seats have shared their biggest concerns for this election. Find out the three most common issues.
Dutton concedes election ‘mistake’
After revealing what he thinks was a key “mistake” in his campaign, Peter Dutton says his party is in the “fight of our lives” days out from the election.