Less than half of Australians were always bulk billed when they saw a GP in 2023-24, government data saysFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastThe Coalition says it will match “dollar for dollar” Labor’s landmark $8.5bn proposal to dramatically increase Medicare bulk-billing rates for GP visits, pledging to meet Anthony Albanese’s commitment to make nearly all doctors’ appointments free.Doctor’s groups have welcomed Labor’s pledge to fund 18m extra bulk-billed GP visits annually, but have warned some patients will still miss out because government rebates are sometimes still too low to cover the cost of all appointments. The health minister, Mark Butler, says nine out of 10 GP visits will be covered by 2030 under Labor’s plan, and has accused the Coalition of “cooking the books” on bulk-billing statistics during their time in office.Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email Continue reading…Less than half of Australians were always bulk billed when they saw a GP in 2023-24, government data saysFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastThe Coalition says it will match “dollar for dollar” Labor’s landmark $8.5bn proposal to dramatically increase Medicare bulk-billing rates for GP visits, pledging to meet Anthony Albanese’s commitment to make nearly all doctors’ appointments free.Doctor’s groups have welcomed Labor’s pledge to fund 18m extra bulk-billed GP visits annually, but have warned some patients will still miss out because government rebates are sometimes still too low to cover the cost of all appointments. The health minister, Mark Butler, says nine out of 10 GP visits will be covered by 2030 under Labor’s plan, and has accused the Coalition of “cooking the books” on bulk-billing statistics during their time in office.Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email Continue reading…
The Coalition says it will match “dollar for dollar” Labor’s landmark $8.5bn proposal to dramatically increase Medicare bulk-billing rates for GP visits, pledging to meet Anthony Albanese’s commitment to make nearly all doctors’ appointments free.
Doctor’s groups have welcomed Labor’s pledge to fund 18m extra bulk-billed GP visits annually, but have warned some patients will still miss out because government rebates are sometimes still too low to cover the cost of all appointments. The health minister, Mark Butler, says nine out of 10 GP visits will be covered by 2030 under Labor’s plan, and has accused the Coalition of “cooking the books” on bulk-billing statistics during their time in office.
Labor’s policy – launched by Albanese in a major campaign rally in Launceston on Sunday afternoon – would see bulk-billing incentive payments tripled for GPs, as well as an additional loading payment for clinics who bulk bill every patient they see. Funding will also go toward 400 nursing scholarships and training 2,000 GPs each year.
Health will be a key plank of Labor’s re-election strategy, including scrutiny on Peter Dutton’s time as health minister and his controversial short-lived plan for a $7 co-payment for GP visits. The plan marks the single biggest investment in Medicare since its introduction.
In 2023, the government tripled the incentive for doctors who bulk billed pensioners, concession card holders and families with children, but that led to concern that patients outside those cohorts were increasingly missing out on free appointments. Butler conceded on Sunday that bulk-billing rates for general patients were “sliding”.
In February, a Cleanbill report found an adult without concessions would not be able to find a bulk-billing GP in 10% of federal electorates. Government figures shared on Sunday state that less than half of Australians were always bulk billed when they saw a GP in 2023-24, warning of large discrepancies in rates across Australia. The new health department data projects a young family could save up to $440 a year under the new policy if their local GP takes up the government offer, while a retiree couple could save up to $677.
“Our modelling suggests that about 4,800 general practices will be better off if they take up our offer. That’s a tripling of the number of bulk-billing practices that currently exist in Australia,” Butler told Sky News.
On Sunday afternoon, Dutton and shadow health minister Anne Ruston said they would match Labor’s policy if the Coalition won office. They claimed “it has never been harder and more expensive to see a doctor”.
“An elected Dutton Coalition government will invest an historic $9bn into Medicare to fix Labor’s healthcare crisis and ensure all Australians have timely and affordable access to a doctor,” Dutton and Ruston said in a statement, referring to matching Labor’s $8.5bn pledge, combined with a previously announced Coalition commitment of $500m for mental health support.
“Fixing Labor’s healthcare crisis and bulk-billing crisis is all part of our plan to get our country back on track.”
The shadow treasurer, Angus Taylor, said the Coalition were “not going to get in the way of Labor cleaning up the mess that it has made, and it’s important that that mess be cleaned up”.
The Coalition has pointed to health data they say showed an 84% bulk-billing rate when Dutton was health minister in 2014, and an 88.5% rate when the Coalition left office in May 2022, compared to a 77.7% rate in December 2024 under Labor. But, as Guardian Australia has previously reported, Butler in 2022 claimed those Coalition-era figures were “not honest” and had been questioned by consumer groups and health policy experts who said those figures had been artificially inflated by non-compliant billing practices.
On Sunday, Butler accused the Coalition of “cooking the books on bulk-billing data” by including Covid-era vaccinations, pathology and telehealth appointments in their sums, which he said Labor wasn’t doing.
“It was hard to know because they weren’t transparently publishing what really matters to Australians, and that is: the bulk-billing rate for GP visits. They sort of bolstered the numbers with all of these other things, particularly during Covid,” he said on Sky.
Labor’s announcement was welcomed by health groups.
Australian Medical Association president Dr Danielle McMullen backed the investment, warning that insufficient increases to Medicare rebates mean that the funding doctors get “no longer bears any relationship to the actual cost of providing high quality services to patients”. She said the changes would give more GP access to vulnerable groups, but repeated calls for wider wholesale reform to Medicare to support patients with more complex needs.
The Royal Australian College of GPs said new incentives would encourage medical students to pursue general practice as a speciality, but also cautioned that the changes wouldn’t fix every problem in accessing medical care.
“Extending bulk-billing incentives to everyone won’t necessarily mean everyone gets bulk billed, because patient rebates are still too low to cover the cost of care,” said the RACGP president, Dr Michael Wright.
Discover more from World Byte News
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
