More than 5.4m additional visits to the doctor were bulk billed in the past year due to a boost to incentives, according to figures released by the health minister, Mark Butler.
The proportion of all doctors’ visits that are bulk billed has increased by 1.7 points from 75.6% in October last year to 77.3% this October, the data shows.
In November 2023 the Albanese government tripled the incentives for GPs to bulk bill pensioners, concession card holders and children.
The government has revealed this investment has created an additional 103,000 bulk-billed visits to the GP every week, or more than 5.4m additional bulk-billed visits in total. More than 2.2m of those were in rural and regional areas.
Bulk-billing rates were highest in New South Wales (81.9%, up 1.3 points since October 2023) and Victoria (78.2%, up 1.4 points).
Big increases were recorded in South Australia (up 3.8 points to 74.5%), Tasmania (up 5.6 points to 71.9%) and the Northern Territory (up 4.5 points to 76%).
However, bulk-billing rates remain low in the ACT at just 52.5%, up one point.
Butler said Labor had “defended and strengthened” Medicare since it was introduced 40 years ago.
“Bulk billing was in freefall when we came to government,” he said. “We know there is more work to do but we are seeing things turn around.
“We’ve got more doctors, we’ve got more bulk billing, and we’ve got Medicare urgent care clinics that have already seen more than 850,000 patients, all fully bulk billed.”
On Sunday the deputy prime minister, Richard Marles, took aim at the opposition leader, Peter Dutton, over his record as health minister in the Abbott government.
“As health minister, he said the main problem with Medicare was that it was too generous – that there were too many free services,” Marles told a Labor rally in Adelaide.
“He didn’t understand that this is the actual point of bulk billing.
“As health minister, Peter Dutton decided to cut bulk billing … It was Peter Dutton’s decision to try and bring in the infamous GP tax.”
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, said Dutton “thinks medicine should be more expensive and Medicare less generous”.
In September, Dutton said that “bulk-billing rates have fallen under this government compared to when I was health minister”.
According to an ABC fact check, bulk-billing rates reached 84% in 2016, despite the Coalition ordering a two-year freeze on the Medicare rebate. However, bulk-billing rates fell from 88.8% in 2020–21 to 80.2% in 2022-23.
In his May budget reply, Dutton pledged $400m to encourage resident doctors to train in general practice.
