Federal budget ‘lacks ambition’ for health system, says AMA Queensland
Queensland’s Australian Medical Association says the federal budget lacks ambition on much-needed reform but praised some new help for older Australians.
According to peak doctors’ organisation AMA Queensland, the 2026-27 federal budget lacks inspiration for true reform of Australia’s health system.
President Dr Nick Yim said while there were no unexpected shocks in the economic blueprint, AMA wanted to see a bigger uplift to public hospital funding to reach 50/50 with the states.
“Australians deserve proper investment in their public hospitals, no matter where they live, and the uplift has to come from Canberra.”
He added that with the cost of healthcare rising, all Australians deserve bigger rebates to help cover those expenses.
“Instead, the government has increased funding to inefficient, lower quality models that cost taxpayers more, like Urgent Care Clinics and government funded GP clinics,” he said.
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Dr Yim highlighted what the budget did well, welcoming $3.7 billion to deliver more services to older Australians, including 5000 extra aged-care beds each year.
“We know bed block is a critical factor in long waiting lists for planned surgery in our public hospitals, and the more stranded patients we can get out of hospitals into more appropriate aged care arrangements, the better,” he said.
He also welcomed $3.2 million for consultations on private health sector reforms.
“It’s an acknowledgement that the real value of private health insurance continues to fall but will be of cold comfort to those shelling out more after recent premium increases.”
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“We also applaud the federal government for making RSV immunisations free for Australians 75 and older and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders over age of 60.”
Dr Yim stressed the importance of industry-wide reform, which was lacking from the federal budget.
“What doctors and patients deserve is broad, structural reform of our medical workforce, particularly our medical training pipelines, coupled with comprehensive planning to get highly skilled medical practitioners to the areas they’re needed most.”
Leading the research-based pharmaceutical industry of Australia, Medicines Australia also raised concerns over the budget, saying it lacked a funded plan to implement new and innovative medicines.
The budget also did not include funding or implementation progress for Australia’s Health Technology Assessment (HTA) system, a key pathway for these reforms despite years of reviews, expert consultation and consensus-driven recommendations, according to Medicines Australia.
Medicines Australia CEO Liz de Somer said: “Patients are waiting too long for access to new treatments, and without meaningful reform to the HTA system we risk falling further behind comparable countries.”
The budget also lacked reform plans for the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS), which has not been substantially reformed in more than 30 years, she said.
While Medicines Australia acknowledged the budget’s $5.9 billion to cover recently listed PBS medicines it says the reality is investment into the PBS is set to decline in coming years as a proportion of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
“Australia should be proud of the PBS and the role it plays in ensuring affordable access to medicines, but the system supporting it has not kept pace with advances in medical innovation,” de Somer said.
Medicines Australia urged the government to prioritise the accessibility and availability of new medicines at the forefront of reforms to the PBS and appoint a medicines industry representative to be included in the Health working group.
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