For many Aussies, moving to the regions has been the ideal escape from the anxieties of city life during a pandemic.
But are these city-dwellers getting the health care they need once they have relocated to the country?
For South Coast NSW resident Kim Hawkins, keeping up with medical expenses has been a real struggle.
The 48-year-old moved to Batemans Bay from Melbourne two years ago and has found it next to impossible to find a local GP who bulk bills.
"I'm now seeing a clinic that doesn't bulk bill and I end up paying a gap of about $60 to $70," he said.
Local GPs have told the ABC they struggle to meet the costs of managing a regional clinic and cannot afford to bulk bill or take on new patients.
This meant a lot of doctors were less likely to move to a remote area to practice medicine.
With his GP on the coast planning a move to Canberra, Mr Hawkins said he was going to drive a four-hour round trip from Batemans Bay to access medical care.
"We need GPs like him because he's fantastic," he said.
Severe shortage in bulk-billing GPs
The ABC found that only five out of the 37 GP clinics in south-east NSW offered bulk-billed consultations for all patients, one of which is Narooma's Blue House Surgery, which is due to shut at the end of May.
Federal Labor candidate for the South Coast Gilmore electorate Fiona Phillips last week announced that if elected, an Albanese government would invest more than $135 million across four years to establish a trial of 50 Medicare Urgent Care Clinics across the country, including one in Batemans Bay.
The funding promise extends to existing GP clinics, who will have to apply to provide urgent care services from 8am to 10pm daily.
But in a statement to the ABC, Liberal candidate Andrew Constance said this promise did not consider the shortage of GPs and other medical practitioners in regional areas.
Mr Constance said the government has promised to directly target this shortage with funding if re-elected.
"[We] will invest $87 million to provide additional workforce incentives to GPs and allied health professionals to provide further targeted support to rural generalists," he said in his statement.
Since then, Labor has also made a broader promise to invest $970 million over three years aiming to improve patient access to GPs, decrease pressure on hospitals and better manage complex and chronic conditions.
Opposition leader Anthony Albanese has also promised that if he wins, he'll create a Medicare task force that will be chaired by the health minister and include peak body groups.
Over $10,000 in out-of-pocket costs
But it is not only access to GPs that has become an issue in regional areas.
Broulee resident Jess, 38, has had to pay thousands of dollars for medical care for her children.
Her daughter and son — aged 14 and 8 — both live with ADHD and a raft of other neurodivergent conditions.
They are prescribed seven medications in total, at a cost to the family of about $500 a month.
On top of that, Jess and her children have repeatedly had to travel to Sydney's Royal Far West medical centre to access urgent developmental and mental health support.
"The waitlist for Royal Far West was nine months, but if we were to do it locally, we'd potentially still be waiting at a massive financial cost," she says.
Jess estimates her family has spent tens of thousands of dollars in treatment for her children.
Her daughter's ADHD diagnosis alone cost $5,000.
"Just to see the paediatrician is $500 and that's out of pocket and that needs to happen every three months and for them to have an appointment with a psychologist, it's close to $200."
Jess says she worries that the heavy burden her family bears is not going away anytime soon.
"That's what you do as a parent – you do what you can for your kids, but I know that there is a cost to this long-term for us."
Editor's note 7/7/2022: This story was changed to clarify that Mr Hawkins could not find a bulk-billing GP in his area.
