At a time when the cost of living crisis is both making mental health worse and causing an increasing number of people across Australia to delay or miss out on essential mental health care, the Greens have announced a fully costed plan to provide unlimited mental health in Medicare as part of a plan for free mental healthcare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The plan, one of the party\u2019s \u2018Robin Hood\u2019 reforms, will be paid for by taxing big corporations that are profiting off price gouging during a cost of living crisis. It will provide significant cost of living relief and enable all Australians to get the mental healthcare they need, with recent ABS data showing that 43% of people<\/u><\/a> will experience mental health issues in their life and 24% of people<\/u><\/a> who needed to see a psychologist delayed or didn’t do so because of the cost. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Greens\u2019 plan to get mental health into Medicare follows the Greens\u2019 commitment to build 6 Free Local Healthcare Clinics in each electorate, where publicly-employed psychologists, GPs and nurses would be available to provide healthcare for free, as well as a costed plan to get dental into Medicare. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This next step in the Greens\u2019 plan for \u201cFree and Unlimited Mental Healthcare\u201d will be announced by Greens Leader Adam Bandt, health spokesperson Senator Jordon Steele-John and Greens candidate Sonya Semmens in the key Greens target seat of Macnamara on Thursday. Macnamara is one of the closest electoral contests in the country. If 298 voters had changed their vote in the last election, the Greens would have won this seat. In 2022 the Greens received a 5.5% positive swing in Macnamara, while Labor\u2019s vote was almost stagnant with a swing of 0.9%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With a minority Parliament looming, the Greens say that free healthcare will be a key policy for the Party this election and will be on the table and pushed in any minority Parliament negotiations after the next election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n THE GREENS\u2019 PLAN FOR FREE AND UNLIMITED MENTAL HEALTHCARE INCLUDES: <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The previously announced Greens plan to establish 1000 Free Local Healthcare Clinics across Australia, involves government-employed psychologists and nurses providing free services alongside GPs and dentists. There will be at least 6 Free Local Healthcare Clinics per electorate. These Free Local Healthcare Clinics will save the average psychology client up to $430 a year, though more frequent users will save up to $1720.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Each of these policies has been independently costed by the PBO. Based on this analysis, our plan would be expected to cost approximately $5.9b over the coming decade, as well as $31.7b already announced for Free Local Healthcare Clinics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This election, the Greens are campaigning to hold their existing Senate seats and grow in the House of Representatives, in seats including Macnamara, Wills, Richmond, Sturt and Perth. In addition to stopping new coal and gas mines and ending native forest logging, the Greens will have a strong economic offering, centred around a series of \u2018Robin Hood Reforms\u2019 to tackle the housing and cost of living crises: a Big Corporations Tax on large companies\u2019 excessive profits, which will raise $514b over the decade, and fund \u2018Free and Unlimited Mental Healthcare\u2019, \u2018GP for Free\u2019, as well as other measures to come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mr Adam Bandt, Leader of the Australian Greens:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf you\u2019re putting off mental healthcare because you can\u2019t afford it, you\u2019re not alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cUnder Labor and Liberal, big corporations are price gouging and making massive profits during a cost-of-living crisis. Meanwhile, everyday people are forced to choose between getting mental healthcare and keeping a roof over their heads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201c1 in 3 big corporations pay no tax. The Greens will make big corporations pay their fair share of tax so you can see a psychologist for free and get unlimited mental health appointments through Medicare.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cLabor halved mental healthcare in Medicare, but the Greens\u2019 plan will make mental healthcare free and unlimited by expanding Medicare. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis election, voters in Macnamara will have a choice between a Labor MP who\u2019s cut their access to mental healthcare and a Greens candidate who will fight to get mental health fully into Medicare and make it free.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Senator Jordon Steele-John, Greens Health spokesperson and Senator for WA:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe Greens have a bold plan that will improve the health of our community, and bring down the cost of living. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cToo many people in our community are not able to access mental healthcare simply because it\u2019s too expensive. The Greens plan, which I am proud to announce today, will see people being able to get mental healthcare when they need it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cUnder Labor, the number of Better Access Scheme sessions has been cut from 20, to 10. This is leaving too many people unable to get Medicare-subsided Mental Healthcare. The Greens want to ensure that if you need more sessions with your psychologist, you\u2019ll be able to get them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe\u2019ll also increase the rebate and expand the range of providers able to offer Medicare sessions to include provisional psychologists. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis plan to expand the Better Access Scheme sits alongside our plan to open 1000 local healthcare centres across the country where people will be able to see a psychologist for free. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cToday\u2019s announcement is the latest commitment from the Greens that will save the community thousands of dollars a year in healthcare costs. Our plan to get Mental Healthcare into Medicare sits alongside our plan to get Dental into Medicare and to get back to the GP for Free; these will bring us closer to a universal healthcare system.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Greens candidate for Macnamara Sonya Semmens:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cEveryone who lives in Macnamara should be able to access mental healthcare when they need it, but so many in our community are going without.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cLike 1 in 4 Australians I’ve experienced anxiety. \u201cEvery day people tell me the cost-of-living crisis is taking a massive toll on their mental health, while at the same time making it harder to get the mental healthcare they need. This is absolutely heartbreaking, and not the way it should be in our wealthy country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019m so proud of our life-changing plan to deliver unlimited mental health on Medicare and enable people in Macnamara to see a psychologist with no out-of-pocket costs at a Free Local Healthcare Clinic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe can\u2019t keep voting for the same two parties and expecting a different result. If you want free and unlimited mental healthcare, the first step is to vote for someone who\u2019ll fight for you.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" At a time when the cost of living crisis is both making mental health worse and causing an increasing number of people across Australia to delay or miss out on essential mental health care, the Greens have announced a fully costed plan to provide unlimited mental health in Medicare as part of a plan for free … Continue reading “Greens launch plan to put mental health into Medicare”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aussie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29865","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29865"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29865\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29866,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29865\/revisions\/29866"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Like 1 in 5 Australians, I’ve had periods of depression.
Like 1 in 10 Australians, I’ve survived an eating disorder, the deadliest of all mental illnesses.
\u201cAs a parent I worry about how I\u2019d afford to give my kids the mental health care that my parents could access for me when I was young – and which may have saved my life. It\u2019s an awful thing to do the maths on how much help you can afford to give your kids. We know early intervention is critical as a preventative for lifelong or severe mental illness, I\u2019m absolutely determined that no person should put off getting the care they need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n