Greens Senator Jordan Steele John talks proposed new inclusions to Medicare.

Speaker 1 0:00

First up today, the Greens have announced it will push to include ADHD and autism assessments under Medicare. Community Radio Network political reporter Noah Secomb spoke with the Greens health spokesperson Jordan Steele John about the policy. 

Jordan Steele John 0:17

The Greens have been listening to the community, and we have heard really clearly that people are struggling right now. They're struggling with the cost of living. Particularly, we are hearing that from communities who are requiring access to supports and services that can only really be reached once you've got a diagnosis. Two of these communities are the Autistic community in Australia and the ADHD community. Right now, if you're seeking a diagnosis for either ADHD or autism, you will often be required to fork out $5,000 for ADHD and $1,000 for autism, but with some cases, up to $3,000 so we're talking about a large amount of money that is being required of people before they can then access basic services. So our green response is very straightforward. ADHD and autism assessments should be covered under Medicare. There should be specific Medicare item numbers created for these types of assessments, and they should be able to be utilized by a wide variety of specialists. Diagnosis and assessment would be able to be covered under Medicare, if performed by a general practitioner, by a pediatrician, by a psychologist or a psychiatrist, and by a nurse practitioner, this would not only enable people to access bulk bills these assessments, but it would also bring out wait times, because you would finally have a wider variety of professions able to work to the top of their scope of practice to perform these assessments. 

Noah Secomb 1:58

I suppose the big question is the cost of this as a policy, how much would you be forking up? Where are we getting the money from?

Jordan Steele John 2:03

It's roughly $700 million for this proposal. I think it's very valuable to place that in context. We've announced a policy a couple of weeks back to see the billionaires in Australia pay their fair share of tax. That proposal is that once you've got past your billionth dollar, you would pay an additional 10% tax. If we applied that proposal to one billionaire and rein out just in the course of one year, we would raise enough to fund ADHD and autism assessments under Medicare five times over from one individual. This is absolutely possible. What is needed is the political will to do it, and a understanding from politicians that this matters.

Noah Secomb 2:49

Would you see that, maybe by opening up the availability to these ADHD and autism tests, that we could see more of a widespread generational acceptance and understanding of these issues?

Jordan Steele John 3:00

Yeah, look, I think in the last in recent years, we've seen a big shift in the way that ADHD and autism are understood in the community. We are seeing, of the research that we have around who is now seeking diagnosis, and where are we seeing those increases we're actually seeing, I think it's women over the age of 50 as being an increasing cohort that are finally having the opportunity to access diagnoses and assessments and and sharing with each other the benefits that cover that I've had so many folks reach out to our office personally and share stories of moments of hope and of grief as people come to realize that they have spent decades of their lives often feeling that they are failing, that they are broken, that they are lazy, there's these awful kind of internalized negative narratives that many have, and then they are offered the opportunity to actually understand how their brain works, that they're none of those things. Their brains just work differently. And that is, I think, a wonderful opportunity that is opened up by access to diagnosis 

Speaker 1 4:11

Greens health spokesperson Jordan Steele John speaking with Community Radio Network political reporter Noah. Second, you.