Shorten targets healthcare costs

In the space of three weeks, mum-of-two Amber Mayne has been to the doctor eight times.

One of her kids has autism and she's worried she may not be able to pay for food and groceries if healthcare costs rise.

"I can't afford for that," the full-time carer told AAP on the NSW central coast on Thursday.

Doctors have waged a fierce campaign against a controversial freeze to the Medicare rebate, warning patients will be slugged with out-of-pocket costs.

Labor - which introduced the freeze in 2013 - has vowed to drop it if elected in its biggest campaign promise so far.

The party's candidate for the seat of Dobell, Emma McBride, also knows what it's like to be a carer to her ill father.

The former pharmacist says her world was turned upside down by personal experience.

"(I went) from someone who worked within health to someone who needed help," she said.

"It changed how I viewed the whole health system."

That's why it's important patients and their carers have some reassurance that GP visits will be affordable, Ms McBride says.

As for the contest in Dobell - a notionally Labor seat with a wafer-thin 0.2 per cent margin - Ms McBride acknowledges it's going to be a tough battle.

And sure enough, almost at the same hour as Labor's announcement the sitting Liberal MP Karen McNamara announced a $32 million pledge towards a medical school at the nearby Gosford hospital.

"Health has been, and always will be, an important priority for me," she said.