Labor candidate for Nicholls Bill Lodwick said that his party would also commit to investing $600 million to improve access to and affordability of diagnostic imaging and substantially increase the rebates for cancer scans provided cancer patients are bulk billed.
‘‘And we will also open up every magnetic resonance imaging unit in the country and they will all offer free scans for cancer patients — by removing the Medicare licensing restrictions for cancer scans,’’ he said.
Currently, Mr Lodwick said that only half the MRI units in Australia are eligible to bill Medicare — but under Labor’s plan, every MRI will be eligible.
Cancer patients rely on a variety of imaging modalities to monitor their ongoing treatment and following remission, including X-ray, PET, MRI, mammography, bone scans, and CT. Many of these scans are not bulk billed, meaning very high out-of-pocket costs and very high upfront costs.
If elected, Mr Lodwick said that a Labor government in Canberra would establish a ministerial working group on out-of-pocket cancer imaging costs of expert radiologists and other medical practitioners, consumers and cancer specialists to assist with the implementation of the party’s policy.
Labor has also promised to invest $433 million to introduce a new Medicare item to cover the cost of a cancer patient seeing a specialist oncologist and surgeon.
The rebate will result in 3 million additional bulk billed consultations and no out-of-pocket cost for patients.
The Parliamentary Budget Office has costed Labor’s proposal and expects the bulk billing rates to increase from 36 per cent to 80 per cent for surgeons and from 43 per cent to 85 per cent for oncologists for these type of consultations.
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