Medicare Urgent Care Clinics: The budget commits $1.8 billion over five years (plus ongoing funding) to make UCCs a permanent national service. There are currently 135 Medicare Urgent Care Clinics open across the country with an additional two clinics due to open by the end of June 2026. There are 47 clinics in regional, rural or remote Australia.   
Once all are opened, 4 out of 5 Australians will live within a 20-minute drive from their local Medicare Urgent Care Clinic.

Aboriginal health: The budget allocates $1.2 billion for Closing the Gap initiatives over five years, this includes community‑controlled approaches, including establishing two First Nations youth mental health services in remote areas, expanding Birthing on Country, and funding dialysis services in remote communities. 

Mental Health Care and Suicide Prevention: $277.5 million has been allocated in 2026–27 for a 12-month extension of the National Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Agreement to deliver continuity of supports, including free services such as Medicare Mental Health Centres and headspace clinics. The government is also providing funding to extend the work to achieve universal perinatal mental health screening.  

Aged care: The budget provides $3.7 billion to aged care, which includes $1.7 billion to build up to 5,000 new aged care beds per year, $224.3 million for dementia care and transition programs, and expanded Support at Home packages.  

Thriving Kids: The government will contribute $2 billion over 5 years to Thriving Kids, providing early intervention support for children aged 8 and under with developmental delay or autism with low to moderate needs. The initiative will introduce a Medicare-subsidised GP assessment for three-year-olds, a National Digital Child Health Record to track and share development information, nationally consistent guidance and navigation support for families (including autism-specific supports), and expanded local services delivered through an upskilled workforce. 

Specialist fees: The budget allocated $2.1 million in 2026–27 to improve informed financial consent and standardised fee disclosure for specialist care, building on Medical Costs Finder upgrades. There is also $2 million for external advice to help the health department on how to tackle high specialist fees.  

Prevention: $449 million is allocated to add RSV vaccinations for older and Aboriginal populations, alongside measures to lift childhood immunisation rates (including campaigns, SMS reminders and pharmacist delivery) and continued investment in cancer screening and prevention programs. 

Digital Health Reform Agenda: Funding of $598.3 million over 2 years will support the digital health reform agenda through My Health Record, providing easy, more secure data sharing and continuing reforms to sharing by default, plus the budget has allocated funding to improve aged care ICT systems.  

PHN programs: The budget provides funding of $54.5 million to extend After Hours and Homelessness Access programs to June 2028, and $119.3 million to extend the PIP Quality Improvement incentive.