More Ausralians struggling to find bulk-billing GPs despite Labor’s ‘record’ funding, new research reveals

More and more Australians are having a harder time finding bulk-billed appointments compared to the same time before the last federal election, despite what the government claims is a record level of funding for GPs.

Labor Health Minister Mark Butler has lauded Medicare a success after it was revealed Australia beat a host of other rich countries to take the top spot in a ranking of global health systems in September.

But data released by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) last month showed Medicare may not be the steel-plated armour Albanese government thought it was.

When Labor won government in 2022, patients aged 16-64 got about 80 per cent of their GP appointments bulk-billed.

That figure dropped to about 70 per cent in 2023.

It slipped further to 69 per cent as of October 2024.

Age groups on either side have been doing better but were still overall lower than 2022.

Bulk-billed appointments for Australians aged 0-15 jumped from 88 per cent in 2023 to 90 per cent in 2024.

This was 2 per cent lower than in 2022.

Meanwhile, patients 65 and over inched up from 86 per cent in 2023 to 87 per cent in 2024.

It was a 3 per cent drop on 2022.

The worrying trend comes as the government prepares for an upcoming federal election next year - where it is expected to rely on their strong territory of health investments and safeguards for Medicare.

Mr Butler has defended his government’s position - saying the report highlighted the investments in Medicare “through the tripling of the bulk billing incentive as a recent improvement to affordability”.

“Our Government’s investment in Medicare has meant more than 4 million additional bulk billed visits to the GP since 1 November last year,” he said.

On Thursday, Mr Butler blamed the dip in bulk-billed appointments on the former Coalition government, saying rates were “in free fall and general practice was at a tipping point” when Labor came to power.

“That was no accident,” he told reporters.

“It was a result of 10 years of cuts and neglect, and in particular, the freezing of the Medicare rebate that was kicked off by Peter Dutton when he was the health minister a little more than 10 years ago.

“We we’ve seen that investment, that record investment in bulk billing, has already caused that free fall to stop, and indeed for bulk billing rates to start to climb again in every single state and territory across the federation.”

The AIHW data showed the bulk-billing rate started dipping rapidly after peaking at 89 per cent across all age ranges in 2020.

The rate for adults aged 16-64 plunged 7 per cent in the final two years of the Morrison government.