The prime minister will once again put Medicare at the centre of his re-election pitch – promising Australians to access free health care advice after hours with a GP telehealth hotline. The $200 million investment is to be unveiled at a Labor rally in western Sydney.
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00:00Well, the Prime Minister will be returning to his favoured campaign topic today and that is health.
00:07Unveiling a $200 million plan to rebrand an existing free health advice hotline
00:13and expanding it to include free GP telehealth consults after hours.
00:19So from January 1 next year, if Labor is re-elected, the existing health direct service will become 1-800-MEDICARE.
00:27There will be a registered nurse rostered on 24-7.
00:31Australians can call this service, get free health advice.
00:34They can be referred to the service they need or in urgent cases after hours.
00:38They can be connected with a GP appointment via phone or web.
00:44Now the government says this service will be available nationwide
00:47and will ensure 250,000 Australians can avoid going to an emergency department each year.
00:54This is not intended as a substitute for your relationship with your usual GP.
01:00This is intended to cover circumstances where people need to be seen immediately,
01:05need some quick advice, particularly for example when your kid gets sick.
01:09So, you know, it's not intended to replace the relationship people have,
01:13a really important relationship people have with their usual GPs.
01:17This builds on a series of health-related announcements made during this campaign by Labor.
01:21We've seen promises to expand urgent care clinics, to invest billions, to boost bulk billing rates
01:27and to make the price of essential medicines cheaper.
01:32Now this latest pledge will be unveiled at a rally in Western Sydney.
01:36After that, the Prime Minister will take a brief pause to prepare for the fourth and final leaders debate of the campaign.
01:43We've seen Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton to go head-to-head one last time tonight
01:48with just a few days to go until polling day.