The My Aged Care system has received a funding boost of $136.6 million over three years to equip its call centre to handle an expected surge in the volume of inquiries but the hospital sector and general practice in particular have come away empty-handed from the 2016 federal budget.
Doctors' groups have reacted with fury to the continuation and extension of the pause on the indexation of the Medicare rebate to 2020, with RACGP president Frank Jones saying he was “extraordinarily disappointed” on an initial examination of the budget and the AMA saying the budget confirmed the government's “health policy vacuum”.
