TV interview with Minister Butler and Sarah Abo, Today Show – 5 June 2024

SARAH ABO, HOST: Australia’s health system is under pressure from the NDIS, to bulk billing. Let’s bring in Federal Health Minister Mark Butler now to discuss. Mark, good morning, good to see you. Let’s start with the NDIS If we could. We know just how important the scheme is and how desperately it’s needed in this country. So, it is pretty alarming when the NDIS Integrity Chief says that if all the cases of fraud were prosecuted, our justice system simply wouldn’t cope.
 
MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND AGED CARE, MARK BUTLER: It’s incredibly alarming. I’m sure the testimony alarmed a whole lot of Australians. This is a terrific scheme that’s providing support to people with disability that simply wasn’t there more than 10 years ago, but we know there’s simply too much waste, there are too many rorts, there’s certainly too many dodgy providers. That is why Bill Shorten’s legislation before the parliament to clean it up and get the NDIS back on track, is so important that we pass it.
 
ABO: He’s had a quite a bit of time Mark, to fix this, Bill has, I mean it’s a $44 billion scheme. Do you have faith that he is the right man to get this done?
 
BUTLER: He’s absolutely the right man. He was so integral in setting up this scheme more than a decade ago, he understands it intimately. He understands the needs of Australians living with disability and their families intimately. They know him well, they trust him. But this is a scheme that got right off track. There are thousands of unregistered providers out there. Too many of them are dodgy, too many of them are engaged in rorts, and we need the legislation passed through the parliament. We obviously have also been talking to state governments that have a role in the setting and approval of rules in their scheme. So, this is not just a matter for the Commonwealth Government and the Commonwealth Parliament. We need the support of state governments, which is why the Prime Minister talked so deeply with premiers and chief ministers at the national cabinet meeting.
 
ABO: Mark, you know, this is obviously happening under Bill’s watch, though, and obviously the NDIS is a Labor scheme, it was created under Julia Gillard. This is something that you should get right, I mean it’s part of the legacy yet so many, I mean, I’ve got friends of mine who are trying to access help for their children, and they can’t. Then you’ve got dodgy providers who are scheming the system to then spend millions of dollars collectively on cars, holidays, and drugs. I mean, that is outrageous for anyone who is struggling right now.
 
BUTLER: Completely outrageous, and we all know people who are struggling to get onto the scheme and would benefit from this world-leading scheme if they were able to get on it. So, when they read reports, or watch reports on shows like yours, Sarah, about this waste and these rorts and these dodgy providers, they're furious.
 
ABO: I mean, yeah, I get the empathy from the Government, but they just want action, I mean, that’s the bottom line?
 
BUTLER: Yeah, they want action, and we need to pass these laws through the parliament. We're debating them now, I think we'll be debating them further this week. We need the support of state and territory governments to do that, that's how the scheme was set up. We don't have power entirely to change these arrangements, we need their support. It's a priority business for the parliament and for the Government, certainly for Bill Shorten, who is such a strong supporter of this scheme.
 
ABO: All right, well, it needs to succeed because so many rely on it as, you obviously appreciate. Let's move on quickly then to bulk billing. I know you've been working hard to improve the system there, Mark. It still seems to be a bit of a sticking point with Aussies struggling to afford medical care. The latest data seems to suggest things are improving, is that right?
 
BUTLER: That's right, bulk billing is on the rise since we tripled the bulk billing incentive in November. This was a request from the College of GPs, when we did it in last year's Budget, they described it as a “game changer", and we are starting to see a rise in bulk billing. It’s still early days, but in just 7 months we think around 1.7 million additional free visits to the doctor have been added to the scheme. That's on top of the 400,000+ visits to our new Urgent Care Clinics, which again, are fully bulk billed. This is hard work, it's going to take time. I've tried to be up front with the Australian people about this. Income was frozen for doctors for years, which is why there was such pressure on them. But we've had a clear plan to strengthen Medicare, boosting bulk billing, making medicines cheaper, and rolling out Urgent Care Clinics, and it is starting to work.
 
ABO: You would have seen, I guess, in the papers today, the News Limited papers, Mark, that there is some there are some issues. The numbers actually quite don't quite stack up with what we're seeing. The issue as well is that Australians just can't afford the $50 or $100 it costs them to see a doctor for 15 minutes?
 
BUTLER: Which is why we put this plan in place to boost bulk billing. It only took effect in November so some of the figures in the papers today pre-date that increase to the bulk billing incentives. There are also a decline in the number of GP visits because I know it's hard to find a GP, we need to boost the number of GP. The figures that are in the papers today reflect the fact that we're coming out of COVID. There was an artificial inflation, if you like, in the number of short visits to the doctor to get those bulk billed vaccinations for COVID. There were tens of millions of them, and obviously we've moved beyond that. I've tried to be really up front, there is a crisis in general practice. It was the top of our priority list in health policy and we’re working really hard to strengthen Medicare.
 
ABO: A couple of big issues there for the Government to fix. Mark, I appreciate you joining us this morning, thank you.