AMA 2022 Federal Election Health Report Card
The AMA released its Vision for Australia’s Health in 2021, detailing improvements needed across five key pillars of Australia’s health care system.
The AMA has assessed each of the health policy promises made by the Liberal National Coalition, the Australian Labor Party and the Australian Greens during the 2022 Federal Election against the five key pillars of the AMA’s Vision for Australia’s Health, assigning green where significant policy commitments have been made, orange where partial commitments have been made, and red where no commitments have been made. This assessment informs the AMA 2022 Federal Election Health Report Card.
Across the five key pillars of the AMA’s Vision for Australia’s Health, the AMA scores promises on health as follows:
Key
- Commitments aligned to AMA election priorities
- Partial commitment/some relevant policies to AMA election priorities
- No significant election policy announcements/not aligned to AMA election priorities
Health policy promises of the Liberal National Coalition, the Australian Labor Party and the Australian Greens are detailed as follows:
Pillar 1
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Voluntary patient enrolment (VPE) |
Nil | $750 million Strengthening Medicare fund for general practice. $135 million Urgent Care Clinics. | Nil |
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Funding for the Workforce Incentive Program (WIP) for access to services in general practice |
$146 million package supporting rural workforce. | $146 million package supporting rural workforce. $750 million Strengthening Medicare fund for general practice. | Nil |
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Fund infrastructure grants for general practice |
Nil | $220 million committed to support GP infrastructure grants. | Nil |
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Supporting patients to access after-hours GP services |
Nil | After-hours GP via $750 million Strengthening Medicare fund | Nil |
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Encourage more doctors to work in general practice through the establishment of a single employer program for GP registrars and the expansion of prevocational general practice training places |
Expansion of the Murrumbidgee single employer model, trial to more regions across rural Australia. Expansion of the John Flynn Prevocational Doctor Program to more than 1,000 placements. | Expansion of the Murrumbidgee single employer model, trial to more regions across rural Australia. Expansion of the John Flynn Prevocational Doctor Program to more than 1,000 placements. | Nil |
Pillar 2
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New hospital funding agreement, free of cap on funding growth and lifting Commonwealth share to 50%. |
$750 million to establish two new cancer care centres in Perth and Brisbane. $24 million research to reduce Emergency Department wait times. | $400 million expansion of Flinders Medical Centre. | $8 billion extra funding for public hospitals, Commonwealth fund 50% of hospital costs, and $875 million surgery waiting list reduction. |
Pillar 3
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Restore the Private Health Insurance Rebate to 30%, reform Medical Levy Surcharge and Lifetime Health Cover, establish Private Health Authority. |
Nil | Nil | Abolish the private health insurance rebate. |
Pillar 4
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Fund National Preventive Health Strategy |
Nil | Nil | $275 million to establish a National Preventive Health Commission. |
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Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health |
Nil | 30 new dialysis units, $12 million Rheumatic heart disease prevention, $15 million for water supply in remote communities. The funding of 500 new training places. | $371 million towards Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Community Controlled health services. $5.06 billion for Gold Card access to First Nations elders aged 60 and above. |
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Expanding community mental health services |
Federal Budget expansion of Head Space and to Head to Health clinics. | ALP pledge $31 million boost to Medicare for people in regional areas access cheaper telehealth psychiatry. | $4.8 billion to deliver unlimited free Medicare funded sessions with a psychiatrist or psychologist. $714 million for 1,000 new peer worker places. |
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Telehealth |
Access to permanent telehealth as part of Medicare, in the 2021 MYEFO. | $31.3 million to restore 50% regional loading to telehealth psychiatric consultations. | Nil |
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Promotion of regional training and research teaching hospital hubs to grow non-GP specialist capacity outside metropolitan areas. |
$3.9 million for 3 new centres under Rural Health Multidisciplinary Training Program | Nil | Nil |
Pillar 5
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The establishment of an Australian National Centre for Disease Control (CDC) |
Nil | Committed to the establishment of a CDC. | $246 million to establish a CDC. |
Other significant announcements |
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Medicines |
PBS co-payment to be cut from $42.50 per script to maximum of $32.50. | PBS co-payment to be cut from $42.50 per script, to a maximum of $30. | Nil |
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Diabetes care |
$273.1 million to expand the Continuous Glucose Monitoring (CGM) Initiative from 1 July 2022 for people with Type 1 diabetes. | $273.1 million to expand the Continuous Glucose Monitoring (CGM) Initiative from 1 July 2022 for people with Type 1 diabetes. | Nil |
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IVF |
$53 million service expansion package | Nil | Nil |
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Pediatric screening |
Nil | $38 million for expansion of newborn screening program. | Nil |
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Dental |
Nil | Nil | $77.6 billion for Medicare dental care. |
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LGBTQIA+ Health |
$4.2 million over three years for LGBTIQ+ mental health and suicide prevention research and training. | $250,000 to develop a National LGBTIQ+ Health Action Plan. | $285 million over four years to establish LGBTIQA+ health, $15 million for gender-affirming Medicare access. |
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Medical research |
Nil | Nil | $250 million over two years for Covid-19 vaccine research. |
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Aged care |
$19.1 billion five-year plan announced before election in response to Royal Commission. | A further $2.5 billion in addition to Royal Commission response for 24/7 Aged Care nursing presence and mandating 215 minutes care per day | $6 billion per annum to increase nurse to patient rations and hours of care to 4 hours 18 minutes per resident per day. |
*Best endeavours have been taken to include all significant information in this Report Card as announced up to and including 15 May 2022. The Report Card does not include all local announcements made in by candidates seeking election in individual electorates.