Category: politics

How Labor Ensured the Death of Universal Bulk Billing

Yes yes, the LNP froze the Medicare rebates for years, pushing GPs away from being able to bulk bill all their patients, but many still chose to bulk bill, or offered bulk billing to kids and concession card holders. Others moved to private billing entirely, with some offering a slightly lower upfront cost if you’re a cardholder, but not all.

In all the cases where the GP is choosing to bulk bill or take a lower upfront payment they are effectively having to absorb that cost into the practice and have to covered by full fee paying patients.

But the changed to have a different bulk billing incentive for those that have a concession card and those that don’t has certainly stopped some bulk billing non-eligible patients, as they would then be worth $13 less per consultation, and where is the sense of obligation to bulk bill regular patients if they are worth less on the books than those with concessions and kids?

The RACGPs recommends a level B consult fee of just over $100. So, when they bulk-bill a patient, they are accepting a lower payment than if they charged them privately. If they private bill though, the patient will only get the regular rebate back, and that $20 is lost to the empty promises.

Who does the bulk billing incentive apply to? This incentive only applies to the following vulnerable patient groups, and only if they are bulk billed: Children under 16 years Commonwealth concession card holders (Centrelink or DVA cards): Pensioner Concession Card Health Care Card Commonwealth Seniors Health Card How much is the bulk billing incentive? The bulk billing incentive applies to eligible patients as per the following locations: Metro (MMM1): $20.65 Regional centres (MMM2): $30.15 Large-medium rural towns (MMM3-4): $31.95 Small rural towns (MMM5): $34.05 Remote communities (MMM6): $35.80 Very remote communities (MMM7): $39.65

So, when Labor defend the stage three tax cuts with the bulk billing incentives and the chance they make a difference to people’s ability to access the medical care they need, I laugh and cry.

If you’re on $45k, you’re unlikely to have a health care card (you might if you have a family member with a disability) so your 43c a week isn’t exactly going to cover the $90 upfront my GP charges, or the $70 with concession. You might be able to buy some of that “summer sports gear” for a certain upcoming long weekend, but you won’t be able to cover the “$30” meds that went up to $31.60 on Jan 1.

So, while the LNP starved Medicare, by creating a three-tier system, Labor are killing the last of the will for universal bulk-billing. So every time they tout the tripled bulk billing incentive, remember that it only applies to kids under 16, concession card holders and some eligible Indigenous Australians, and so leaves out the precious middle Australia that I thought they were trying to win over? No?

Who even is the Labor target market these days?

Greens candidate faces court following Port Blockade arrest

Greens Candidate for Lake Macquarie City Council North Ward Bryce Ham was among members of the Rising Tide 109 facing court today following last year’s blockade of the Port of Newcastle.

Greens leader Adam Bandt with Lake Mac candidate Bryce Ham at the blockade in Novermber

Bryce Ham was announced as the Greens’ candidate for Lake Macquarie City Council North Ward last month ahead of the election in September this year.

NSW Greens spokesperson for Climate Change and Member of the NSW Legislative Council Sue Higginson said:

“The actions of the 109 community members that were arrested during the Rising Tide Blockade last year stand as a testament to the determination and courage of people resisting the fossil fuel industry.

“Bryce has proudly taken a principled position on the need to end our reliance on fossil fuels and to call out the corporations and Governments that are driven by short term profit motives. I will stand today, and everyday, shoulder to shoulder with Bryce and others as we work to combat climate change in this world.”

Bryce on his commitment to climate action: “I’ve been on the frontlines of the climate action movement since I was a high school student. I’ve petitioned, penned letters, rallied, met with politicians, and helped educate our community. I have called out governments at all levels for not acting quickly enough to spare us the massive costs of climate change, from the Black Summer bushfires to the floods of 2022-23.”

Bryce on the People’s Blockade: “I proudly joined the People’s Blockade, the largest civil disobedience action for climate justice in Australia’s history. We blocked coal trade at the Port of Newcastle for 32 hours. We had received an unprecedented permission from Police to occupy the shipping channel for 30 hours. But we are in a crisis, and we have to keep pushing the boundaries.”

Bryce on the federal government’s actions: “Anthony Albanese’s Labor government continues to approve new coal projects. Despite the clear and present danger posed by climate change, they have chosen to prioritise short-term economic gains over long-term sustainability. This is not the leadership we need.”

Bryce on his arrest: “Being arrested was not an act of rebellion, but an act of commitment and resolve to send a clear message to our governments: We cannot afford to be complacent in the face of the climate emergency. Being arrested is a small price to pay in comparison to the disasters already occurring due to climate change. We will continue to fight for our planet and for climate justice.”

Bryce on his Council candidacy: “As a Greens’ candidate for Lake Macquarie City Council, I am running to safeguard our shared future. If elected, I promise to bring the same resolve to Council that prompted me to paddle out in the Port of Newcastle in front of coal loaders and container ships. I will challenge Council to adopt policies in the long-term best interests of Lake Macquarie residents, and ensure our community’s voice is heard. Because when it comes to the future of our planet and our community, we cannot afford to be silent.”

By 2030, more Australian children should rely on charity

Is that the right interpretation Mr Leigh?

The famous quote I thought you should be going back to was Bob Hawke’s “By 1990, no Australian child will be living in poverty”. But that’s not today’s Labor party is it? The welfare state was already being disbanded in Bob’s days, but Labor of the new millennium have really gone for it, embracing the turns to the right of their opposition, while coming into power on weak words and impressions that they are there for those in need.

“Nobody left behind” was Albanese’s thing. But people are being left behind in greater numbers than ever. The lip service paid, forming an economic inclusion committee and ignoring its key recommendation to bring jobseeker to 90% of the pension. It wasn’t even a big ask really, the pensions are still below the poverty line and you though “yeah nah, let’s throw them $20/week” while costs of living spiraled for everyone. People who are working full time are becoming homeless, sleeping in tents and cars, dodging bushfires and floods. The rental landscape is bleak, and home ownership impossible when former public housing is going for a million plus in Sydney suburbs.

We saw the happy snaps at the Christmas lunches and hamper giveaways for poor people at your favourite charities. The ones that are meant to just fill a gap for the most needy, but are seeing record requests for help. Extending the single parent payment to kids aged up to 14 still doesn’t get those families out of poverty when you still have carers payments and the like below the poverty line. The $88 a day we’ve been asking for for a couple of years now is surely outdated, and rent assistance is a joke when it maxes out at $180 a week in a landscape where you take what you can et when you can get and hope your asthma isn’t exacerbated by the mold.

Healthcare costs are spiraling, and many GPs aren’t bulk-billing kids anymore, even with the increased incentives, so parents are forced to make some really tough decisions when it comes to prioritising healthcare of their kids, you wouldn’t want to be seen as neglectful because basic medical care is unaffordable. You won’t get more help from the system, because it’s already giving you all that’s legislated for, so you’d better make do and deal the the policing and more stress.

Medicines will go up again next week – 40c a script for concession card holders. But that’s fair right? we got indexation in one hand on our pensions, so the government ought to take away with the other hand.

No Aussie child in poverty by 1990? Those kids have had their own kids by now, some are even close to the next generation. But it’s only going backwards, and boosting charities and incentives for ladies who lunch, blokes on charity golf days and well meaning white women to drive their leased cars to negotiate donations isn’t the way to do it.

Raise welfare above the poverty line, build and buy more public housing, enough to house everyone who needs it, the effects will flow up, unlike the stage 3 tax cuts that will not trickle down.

Happy New Year, Andrew Leigh, I’m sorry you don’t see that you should be working to make the charities portfolio redundant rather than building up our country’s reliance on the whims of those with a dollar to spare.

The move is done, we’re tired, sore, hot, frustrated and broke and omg can Jimmy just fk off with his MYEFO right now?

*insert rants here*

I don’t know where to start and what to leave out?

This is why I’m leaning towards merely political commentary because if I say the wrong thing about the wrong person shit will hit the fan and maybe that’d be for the best.

So where to start?

It’s gonna be 40 degrees today. I’m hoping a storm comes through early so I can sleep tonight. I didn’t sleep enough last night, too sore from sore muscles and joints from moving, but I’m less sore than Bruce who shouldered most of the heavy work. I’m taking inventory of my bumps and bruises, like the ankle I rolled a few days before we did the main move and it’s still aching. Or the elbow I ignored in the same fall. Or the toes and ankles from kicking and tripping into things. Or the dehydration from moving in an official heatwave.

So I’m pottering around this morning having woken too early so Bruce can get a few hours of work in to catch up from the last week, money and tasks wise. Trying to bring some order to this chaos. Cleaning the kitchen. Sorting my clothes, doing some washing that will be dry five minutes after I hang in out.

I’m still pissed off at the lac of internet connection. I checked and I have more than 1000 gig spare data to use on my Aldi plan for us but it’s not as fast and it’s not the point. They’ve also said they’re going to credit me once the install in done, but that doesn’t help right now hey?

I’ve seriously not cried enough the past week or so. It’s all pent up.

I want to do MYEFO commentary, but I can’t, I’ll just point you back to my recent post on the ten cost of living measures that Labor keep saying are responsible and potentially helpful, but I haven’t found them helpful so there’s that.

I just wanna get myself into a rhythm again. Routine, not the time of year to try that but it really didn’t have top go up in the air like that.

I’ll put my clothes away today. I did the linen earlier. And more of the living room clutter. I’ve done the dishes since apparently no-one else will. At least I have a dishwasher here, but it needs to be loaded not just looked at.

At least I’ve yet again moved to somewhere beautiful. Have to walk down a street to get to the creek it’s not just in the backyard, but you can see it from the back deck and yeah, I love having cows and sheep and the RFS in the street.

I’m tired.

11 Days til Xmas.

Spoiler alert: My GP didn’t go back to bulk-billing

Like, I wasn’t actually EXPECTING them to go back to bulk-billing pensioners, other concession card holder and children despite Labor members spouting on about the triple bulk billing incentive and how they were saving medicare and bulk billing and helping disabled people in this cost of living crisis. Or wait, they didn’t actually say disabled people, they only talk about us when it’s about us being all diagnosed with Autism and getting on the NDIS. 

So, I am again just before pension day with less than $20 to my name, because I had to hand over $69 this morning for my GP. Who is unfortunately moving to Queensland next year. Like, this might be a chance to attempt to find a bulk billing doctor near my new place, but ugh, I hate trying to suss out new doctors and feel like they actually want me there. 

We’ve been super stressed here with the move to, I was worried I was gonna take too long with the doctor today and have to pay for a level C consult, but fortunately we realised he could only give me my scripts, reassure me that things will be easier after the mood, and tell me it’s okay to take a little more Quetiapine til the move’s done since I’m so agitated.

I just wish it was all easier. And cheaper hey?

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