MARK BUTLER MP
MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND AGED CARE

Medicare is the very best of Australia. It is the foundation of the fair go.
 
Medicare is a promise Australia makes to all Australians: when illness or injury affects your family, we’ve got your back.
 
Receiving high-quality healthcare shouldn’t mean you have to break the bank to pay for it.
 
Medicare is about delivering for Australians, and doing it our way.
 
The Albanese Labor Government’s 2025-26 Budget is a future-shaping Budget.
 
It makes the largest investment in Medicare since its creation 41 years ago.
 
A history-making investment to build Australia’s future.
 
A future with more bulk billing, more doctors, and more Medicare Urgent Care Clinics.
 
A future where our hospitals are fairly funded, and cheaper medicines are even cheaper.
 
A future with more choice, lower costs and better healthcare for women.
 
A future with fair pay for nurses who care for our older Australians.
 
And a healthcare system that means all you need to receive quality healthcare is your Medicare card, not your credit card.
 
More Bulk Billing

The Albanese Government is investing $7.9 billion so all Australians can see a GP for free.
 
For the first time, Labor will expand bulk billing incentives to all Australians and create an additional new incentive payment for practices that bulk bill every patient.
 
By 2030, this will mean:

• 18 million additional bulk billed GP visits each year.
• Nine in 10 GP visits are free and bulk billed.
• Around 4,800 GP practices are fully bulk billing – triple the current number.
• $859 million saved by Australian patients and families each year.

More Medicare Urgent Care Clinics

The Albanese Government is expanding the availability of free urgent care, with a $657.9 million commitment to open another 50 Medicare Urgent Care Clinics and expand existing services, with more clinics in every state and territory.
 
Once all Labor’s clinics are open:

• Four in five Australians will live within a 20-minute drive of a Medicare Urgent Care Clinic.
• Two million Australians will make use of an Urgent Care Clinic each year, getting free urgent care, fully bulk billed, without waiting hours in a busy hospital emergency department.

More Doctors and Nurses

The Albanese Labor Government is growing the health workforce with $662.6 million to deliver more doctors and nurses than ever before, including:

• The largest GP training program in Australian history, funding the training of 2,000 new GP trainees a year by 2028.
• Salary incentives to encourage junior doctors to specialise as GPs, and paid parental leave for trainee GPs.
• Hundreds of scholarships for nurses and midwives to extend their skills and qualifications.

Cheaper Medicines Get Even Cheaper

The Albanese Government is providing cost of living relief to millions of Australians with $689.1 million to make cheaper medicines even cheaper.
 
From 1 January 2026, the maximum cost of a prescription for a Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) medicine will be cut from $31.60 to $25.
 
This will mean:

• A PBS script will cost Australians no more than $25.
• Australians will save over $200 million more each year.
• The last time that PBS medicines cost no more than $25 was 2004.
• Families filling four prescriptions a month will save as much as $316.80 a year.
• Four in five PBS medicines will get cheaper for Australians without a concession card.

Pensioners and concession cardholders will continue to benefit from the freeze to the cost of their PBS medicines, with the cost frozen at its current level of $7.70 until 2030.
 
More Choice, Lower Costs and Better Health Care for Women

The Albanese Labor Government is working to reverse decades of neglect to women’s health, with $792.9 million to deliver more choice, lower costs and better healthcare for women.
 
Australian women and their families will save thousands of dollars across their lifetimes, thanks to:

• The first new contraceptive pills added to the PBS in 30 years: Yaz®, Yasmin® and Slinda®.
• Better access to IUDs and birth control implants, with larger Medicare payments and more bulk billing, to save around 300,000 women a year up to $400 in out-of-pocket costs.
• The first new menopause treatments on the PBS in 20 years: Estrogel®, Estrogel Pro® and Prometrium®.
• More Medicare support for menopause, with a new Medicare rebate for menopause health assessments, funding to train health professionals and the first-ever clinical guidelines.
• A new PBS listing for endometriosis medicine Ryeqo®.
• 11 new endometriosis and pelvic pain clinics, with all 33 clinics to also support menopause.
• Trialling access to contraceptives and uncomplicated UTI treatment, direct from a pharmacy.

Fairly Funded Public Hospitals

The Albanese Government is boosting funding to public hospitals, including an uplift for the Northern Territory, with an additional $1.8 billion to help states and territories to cut waiting lists, manage ramping, and reduce emergency department waiting times.
 
The total Commonwealth contribution to state-run public hospitals will increase by 12 per cent to reach a record $33.9 billion in 2025-26.
 
Fair Pay for Nurses who Care for Older Australians

The Albanese Labor Government is investing $2.6 billion in a further pay rise for 60,000 aged care nurses, to deliver fair pay for the workers and nurses who care for older Australians.
 
Since the 2022 Election:

• $17.7 billion has been invested to support award wage increases for aged care workers.
• A registered nurse level 2 on pay point 3 of the award earns $430 more a week – over $22,000 extra a year.
• An enrolled nurse on pay point 2 of the award earns $370 more per week – over $19,000 extra a year.

Including the historic investments in this Budget, the Albanese Labor Government has invested $23.5 billion to strengthen Medicare since the 2022-23 October Budget.
 
At this election Australians will face a clear choice: a stronger Medicare with more bulk billing for all Australians under Labor, or more cuts to Medicare under Peter Dutton's Liberals.

As at 25 March 2025.