The Turnbull Government remains committed to Medicare.
However, 21st Century consumers now expect 21st Century technologies to manage their everyday payments and Government should be no exception.
Between Medicare, Aged Care and the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, the Commonwealth processes over $42 billion worth of payment transactions every year.
Everyday Australians use cards to make ‘tap and go’ payments, and apps to make payments, and yet Medicare has not kept up with these new technologies.
This is why the Department of Health is investigating ways to digitise its transaction technology for payments to a more consumer-friendly and faster format.
This is part of our commitment to ensuring the Government embraces innovation and is agile and responsive to changes in the digital economy.
This work will be undertaken with the assistance of business innovation and technology experts, to determine the best and most-up-to-date payment technologies available on the market for consumers and health and aged care service providers
At this stage no decisions have been made, and the work continues.
Attempts by Labor and the CPSU to scaremonger as a negative for consumers shows their focus is on politics over patients.
