'478444X' probably means nothing to any of you here in this room, but it is very important to me. That was Medicare provider number that I got when I started my private practice, the same week that Medicare started, in 1984. It's the same provider number I use now, to this very day. Before the coalition gets too excited, I don't use it to bill Medicare. I use it because it's required for some procedures, such as referrals to specialists et cetera, and to make sure patients get access to some of the government schemes, such as the supporting kids with autism scheme, so they can get allied health approvals. I rise to speak on the public importance of the Health Legislation Amendment (Miscellaneous Measures No.1) Bill not just as a member of parliament but as someone with a deep understanding of the importance of providing efficient health care to everyone in an equitable manner and the firsthand experience of administrative bottleneck.
It took me weeks and weeks to get my Medicare provider number. Even though the scheme had been explained and well resourced at the beginning, it was a huge bureaucratic nightmare. The relief I got when I got my provider number was unbelievable. It's been the mainstay of my professional life since that time, over 40 years. I personally experienced the difficulties involved in obtaining a Medicare provider number, as have many of my colleagues, in particular my young medical students, once they finish their training and work as residents and registrars when they are looking to further their professional lives, either as general practitioners or as specialists.
Over many years there have been refinements to the scheme, but this bill is long overdue and is an important way of increasing people's access to medical care and increasing bulk-billing in ensuring the availability of doctors. In my electorate, which is outer south-western metropolitan Sydney, there are still huge difficulties in attracting doctors to work in our communities, both at a general practice and a specialist level. Improving access to Medicare provider numbers will help with that a lot.
The application processes can be quite challenging and processing time frames very lengthy, particularly for overseas health professionals, delaying them from commencing work in the Australian healthcare system and, I suspect, also preventing many from coming here. As at recommendation 2 of the Cook review, this bill will amend the Health Insurance Act to streamline the application process for health practitioners, enabling them to receive a Medicare provider number more quickly and provide healthcare services sooner.
Amendments made by schedule 2 to the bill will enable the chief executive of Medicare to approve the use of computer programs to make more-appropriate non-discretionary decisions to allocate Medicare provider numbers, whilst all decisions to refuse a provider number will continue to be checked and authorised by the chief executive at Medicare or their delegate. This bill will validate previously issued Medicare provider numbers that were issued by a computer program.
The department has been in consultation with the relevant agencies, who support the legislative component to support the automation of Medicare provider numbers and are supportive of this decision. We're working with state and territory governments, education providers and regulators to implement the recommendations of the independent review of Health Practitioner Regulatory Settings, led by the highly respected health administrator Ms Robyn Cruk AO.
This is a significant improvement made to the administration of our healthcare services to ensure that overseas doctors—who make up around 50 per cent of the doctors practicing in Australia and do tremendous work providing quality care and play a vital role in easing our workforce shortage and have done for many decades—will spend less time navigating bureaucratic hurdles and instead be able to care for our most vulnerable in all areas of Australia, particularly in outer metropolitan rural and regional areas, and care for people who really need that care. Having the right skills is critical to the success of the government's agenda. We know that. This bill will make it easier for medical practitioners who are well qualified to get access to Medicare billing.
Schedule 2 of this bill will see the amendment of chapters 2, 3 and 6 of the Private Health Insurance Act 2007 to support the processes for claiming private health insurance rebates under the premiums reduction scheme. The Australian government reimburses private health insurers for the proportion of health insurance premiums that are reduced on behalf of consumers under the premiums reduction scheme. Each year, rebate repayments in excess of $7 billion are paid in this manner. The private health insurance rebate is an essential element to our healthcare system in order to make private health insurance more affordable for Australians by funding part of their premium. The premiums reduction scheme allows eligible people to choose to get the rebate at the time they pay their private health insurance premium—and I'm certainly a beneficiary of that—rather than pay the full cost of the premium and then claim a deduction back through their tax return at the end of the financial year.
Under the scheme, the insurer reduces the premium payable by the policyholder by the amount of the rebate and then claims reimbursement of the amount through a system administered by Services Australia. Over time it's become clear that parts of the registration and claims process for the scheme haven't always lined up with the rules set out in the Private Health Insurance Act, resulting in some inconsistencies with its administration. To fix that, this bill is introducing some changes to help the system run more smoothly and support the operation of the registration and claims system—which is yet again another way this government understands health care and understands the importance of getting people access to health care, making the process more streamlined.
The Chief Executive Medicare is now able, with this bill, to use automated systems to handle registrations and claims. These changes will make it possible to recover any overpayments caused by system errors. Changes were made to our healthcare system last year with the introduction of the Health Insurance Legislation Amendment (Assignment of Medicare Benefits) Act 2024, which modernised and simplified how patients assigned their Medicare benefits. In a modernised era, the changes were made to align with the times and move away from paper based processes and to support a digital assignment option.
This bill supports the modernising of the assignment of Medicare benefits by addressing the limitations of the assignment of Medicare benefits and health insurance act and supporting regulations, allowing the ability for a patient to assign their Medicare benefits—which will underpin further increases in bulk-billing, particularly with our new supports for bulk-billing processes in the general practitioner field. We understand that these processes and changes can be tedious and time-consuming, but we have listened to the concerns of the IT vendors, state and territory governments, medical peak body groups and other stakeholders who have expressed concerns with the timeline of delivering rebate changes and also with the extension of provider numbers.
To provide sufficient time for medical and health industries—particularly the private sector, to allow for software updates to reflect new assignment benefit processes—this legislation is being introduced. The extensions of time will allow the health sector, medical industry providers and patients to prepare for any changes. Our government is committed to easing the cost-of-living pressures and ensuring people receive the care and treatment which they need, and our government has committed funding to implement these reforms, which will further streamline the process for patients and also for medical practitioners. We are ensuring that the passage of this bill will be a further string in the Albanese government's election commitment of $7.9 billion to improve bulk-billing incentive payments, to encourage increased bulk-billing rates and further ensure that more Australians can see a GP and their specialists for free.
The Department of Health, Disability and Ageing has been in consultation with all relevant parties for this amendment—from patient representatives, stakeholders, private health insurers and hospitals to state and territory governments—and has taken feedback and recommendations to provide a seamless transition. This is what Australians deserve, and it's the one thing that Labor governments have done: ensured that the Australian population can receive the health care it needs, making our healthcare system the envy of the rest of the world. Australians deserve to have fairer and affordable access to see a doctor when they need to. This bill, furthermore, will amend the Bonded Medical Program—a program which provides eligible students with a subsidised Commonwealth supported place in a medical degree at university in exchange for a commitment to working in a regional, rural or remote area after graduation.
There have been concerns about the bonded program for some time. Students sign up when they're very young and their circumstances often change. Sometimes it can be quite difficult with partners, when people get married or when families change to continue to work in a region they thought they were originally going to be bonded to. It can also affect specialist training positions that require people to work in tertiary- or quaternary-level hospitals to complete their specialist training, and that can be quite difficult if you're on a rural bonded scheme. We want to make sure that people can access extra training when they need to, so there are changes to the rural bonded scholarship scheme which will allow more flexibility. We want to make sure that we see sufficient health services across regional and rural areas, of course, and we have done many things to ensure that those living in the farthest areas of our country can access the same quality health care that they need and deserve. This bill will amend the Health Insurance Act to enhance the Bonded Medical Program by ensuring the consequences of breaching conditions of or of withdrawal from the program fairly balance both the personal circumstances of the bonded participant and the broader interests of the community. It will allow all work completed by a bonded participant in good faith, consistent with program objectives, to be counted towards their return-of-service obligation.
I recently met with one of my paediatric registrars, who was on a rural bonded scholarship and needed some extra time to complete some subspecialty training at a specialist children's hospital. The scheme previously was very rigid and wouldn't allow that to happen. This scheme will now allow that to happen, which will mean she will still deliver her service in the regional area she was committed to, while being allowed time to complete her training at the highly specialised unit. This is a very, very good thing, and I fully support it. I've been contacted by a number of medical students who face this predicament, and it's honestly a shame to see the stress that some of them have been put under. I'm glad that this bill allows more flexibility. We have seen significant workforce shortages because of lack of uptake of the rural bonded scholarships, and this will allow more of those scholarships to be taken up, improving access to really high-level health care in rural and regional areas.
Currently, students have the option to withdraw from the program without any consequences, and I think that there still should be some consequences. If they decide to withdraw after a specific date, they face a significant financial penalty, and I think that the Commonwealth will be able to encourage more people to take up the schemes if they know that there are rules in place. This bill proposes an important change. It seeks to extend the existing grace period from the HECS census date in the second year all the way through to the completion of the medical degree. This bill will also give the Minister for Health and Ageing new powers to create additional rules to recognise work already completed by bonded participants. This means we're in a alliance with the goals of the program. Work done even before transitioning to the statutory Bonded Medical Program can count towards fulfilling return-of-service obligations, and that's a very important change.
The Albanese government is committed to strengthening our healthcare system, as always. I'm very proud to be part of a government with a Labor tradition of supporting equitable access to health care. I commend this bill to the House, and I thank the minister and the assistant minister for bringing it to the House.
