Mr Birrell was speaking during a debate in the House of Representatives on Monday, February 6, marking the 39th anniversary of the introduction of Medicare by the Hawke Government.
The motion put by the Federal Government boasts that Australia’s healthcare system is based on equitable and fair access for all Australians, acknowledges the Labor Government has reduced the cost of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme co-payment by $12.50 to a maximum of $30, and is making medicines cheaper and more accessible for Australian families.
However, Mr Birrell questioned the government’s commitment to health, saying research from a local psychologist had shown how mental health outcomes had improved dramatically under the Coalition Government’s doubling of subsidised mental health sessions.
“The research showed that the percentage of clients discharged, once their mental health disorder had been appropriately treated, rose from 52 per cent in 2016 to 100 per cent in 2020 when the Coalition increased the number of Medicare-funded sessions to 20,” Mr Birrell said.
“In this clinic, it remained at 100 per cent through 2021 and 2022. So everyone with those 20 sessions was getting the care they needed.”
He said Labor’s halving of the sessions subsidised had come as residents of Nicholls grappled with multiple hardships.
“These cuts have come at a time when Australians in my electorate and others are facing natural disasters and cost-of-living pressures and when household energy bills are skyrocketing,” Mr Birrell said.
The Labor Government’s decision to cut subsidised psychology sessions from 20 per year to the pre-pandemic maximum of 10 per year has also been criticised by the Australian Psychological Society and Mental Health Australia.
The actual anniversary of the introduction of Medicare was on January 1, the same day the mental health cuts came into effect.
Mr Birrell said, despite the benefits of Medicare, regional and remote areas continued to lag behind city counterparts in access to many health services.
In Parliament, the Nationals MP again urged the Federal Government to support the establishment of a Goulburn Valley clinical health school in Shepparton as a means of helping to increase the number of, and retention of, health professionals in the region.
Mr Birrell urged the government to back the clinical health school, towards which the Nationals pledged $19.5 million ahead of the 2022 Federal Election.
The $26.5 million project would be a partnership between Goulburn Valley Health and La Trobe University to train nurses, midwives and allied health workers in Shepparton at a new facility, helping them learn in a clinical setting.
Meanwhile, the Victorian Government has announced that Shepparton will get a Mental Health and Wellbeing Local hub by the end of the year.
The facilities are available to people who are ineligible for headspace services.
The added services are in response to a key recommendation of the Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System, with between 50 and 60 new services to be open across the state by 2026.
