Opposition Leader Peter Dutton says Liberals will match Labor’s proposed $8.5b Medicare bulk-billing plan

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton says he will “invest an historic $9 billion into Medicare”, matching Labor’s proposed re-election pledge while spruiking a previously announced promise to pour $500 million into mental health support.

The Coalition pledge to match the $8.5 million bulk-billing plan “dollar for dollar” came as the Prime Minister Anthony Albanese declared on Sunday that the policy was the “beating heart of our election campaign”.

Both major parties have agreed to make trips to the GP for free in what would be the biggest funding injection into Medicare for 40 years.

Labor claims the changes would mean nine out of 10 GP visits would be bulk billed by 2030, lifting the bulk billing rate to 90 per cent. It is currently 77.7 per cent.

“The Dutton Coalition Government will match the $8.5 billion investment into Medicare dollar-for-dollar to fix Labor’s mess and restore bulk billing back up to Coalition levels,” Mr Dutton said in a joint statement with shadow health minister Anne Ruston on Sunday.

“This investment builds on the $500 million commitment already announced by the Coalition to restore critical Medicare funding for mental health support, after it was slashed in half by the Albanese Government.”

The measure would boost and expand the funding incentives for GPs to bulk-bill patients with a Medicare card.

Currently, it’s only available to concession cardholders such as children under the age of 16 and pensioners.

Mr Albanese formally announced the major pre-election pitch at a campaign-style rally in Launceston on Sunday, framing Labor as a party for the people which is tackling the cost-of-living crisis.

“Medicare is at the heart of our Government and it will be the beating heart of our election campaign,” he told party faithful in the marginal Liberal-held seat of Bass.

“The Liberals spent a decade in government trying to destroy Medicare.

“They tried to stop us from making medicines cheaper. They called our urgent care clinics wasteful spending.

“Peter Dutton said boosting bulk billing from families was a ‘sugar hit’.

“The Liberals will never stop trying to make Australians pay more for their health care.

“The only way to protect Medicare, strengthen it and secure it for all is to re-elect our Labor Government.”

Also speaking at the event, Health Minister Mark Butler accused Mr Dutton of attempting to abolish bulk billing altogether in 2014.

“Australia’s doctors held on for as long as they possibly could under Dutton’s Medicare freeze,” he said.

“But when we came to Government almost three years ago, bulk billing was in free fall. A free fall directly caused by Dutton’s Medicare freeze.”

Shadow treasurer Angus Taylor had hinted that the Opposition would back the pledge on Sky News on Sunday morning, saying the Coalition “won’t get in the way” of the plan but added the move was Labor “cleaning up the mess it has made”.