BULK billing is “collapsing” under Labor, according to Member for Mallee Anne Webster.
Dr Webster said the federal Labor government had promised to “strengthen” Medicare, but claimed it had been “weakened”.
However, federal Health Minister Mark Butler said when Labor came to government, bulk-billing visits were in “freefall”.
“That’s why it was such a centrepiece of our Budget last year to triple the incentive – the money that a doctor gets if they bulk-bill – particularly pensioners, concession card holders and children under the age of 16,” he told Channel Seven’s Sunrise program.
“And so our first job was to stop that slide … I think we’ve done that over the course of last year.”
Dr Webster said it had never been harder or more expensive to see a doctor, as “the data continues to point to a primary-care system at crisis point”.
She said only 66.12 per cent of Mallee patients were bulk-billed.
“Last year, 1.2 million Australians avoided seeing a doctor due to the cost, forcing unwell Australians to choose between putting food on the table or visiting their GP,” Dr Webster said.
Her claims were backed up by Health Department data that showed the proportion of GP patients who were “always“ or “usually“ bulk-billed decreased from 84.7 per cent to 76.5 per cent last financial year.
A Guardian Australia analysis found Australians had lost access to more than 400 dedicated bulk-billing GP clinics during the past 12 months.
Fewer than one in four Australian GP clinics offer bulk billing to all adults in 2024, down more than 11 per cent during the past year.
Dr Webster said affordable health care was important in a cost-of-living crisis and a “weakened primary-care system will place additional pressure on already over-burdened hospitals”.
Mr Butler said that over the past two months, as money started to reach GPs, there was an increase in free visits.
“An extra 360,000 over just two months,” he said.
“But really pleasingly, in some of those markets that had real problems with bulk-billing … regional Victoria is up 5 per cent. So there is a lot more for us to do, but this is a really good start to build on.”
