Goodbye Healthdirect. Hello 1800MEDICARE!
The prime minister will address a Labor rally in Western Sydney today where he’ll make a $200 million pledge to rebrand the free, national health advice service and expand it to include after-hours GP telehealth consults.
The new service will provide access to a registered nurse 24/7 who can give patients expert advice, refer them to the service they need or, in urgent cases, connect them to a free telehealth appointment with a GP.
If Labor’s re-elected, the expanded 1800MEDICARE will be available in every state and territory from January 1 next year.
Today’s announcement builds on a series of health-related promises made by Labor including cutting the cost of essential medicines, investing billions of dollars to boost bulk billing rates and opening more Urgent Care Clinics.
Like the clinics, Health Minister Mark Butler says the expanded service would take some pressure off public hospitals across the country.
“Around 250,000 Australians will avoid an unnecessary trip to a hospital emergency department,” he says.
The prime minister will tonight face-off against the opposition leader in their fourth and final leaders’ debate of this campaign.
You can read more about the pledge in our full story below.
👋 Good morning!
Hello all and welcome to the final Sunday of the election campaign!
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is in Western Sydney today where he’ll announce a re-branding and expansion of Australia’s national health advice service.
The momentum of the campaign is expected to pick up for the final week, with Opposition Leader Peter Dutton set to begin a blitz of 28 key seats across Australia, except the ACT.
I’m Josh Boscaini from the ABC’s Parliament House team here and ready to bring you all of today’s election campaign updates live. Let’s go!
