Labor is promising nine out of 10 GP visits will be free from out-of-pocket expenses by 2030 under a cornerstone pre-election pitch to voters struggling with rising healthcare costs.
In what the government claims will be the largest single investment in Medicare since its inception more than four decades ago, Labor will spend $8.5 billion over four years, including to triple incentives to doctors to provide near universal bulk-billing.
On top of 18 million extra bulk-billed GP visits per year, Labor is also promising 400 nursing scholarships and 2,000 new GP trainees a year by 2028.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who was in Tasmania on Saturday, has described the Medicare investment promise as a ‘legacy defining’ package. (X: Anthony Albanese (@AlboMP))
Labor believes its “legacy defining” package, which the government says has been funded without additional taxes or savings, will prompt voters to shy away from Opposition Leader Peter Dutton and the Coalition’s promised return to spending restraint.
“I want every Australian to know they only need their Medicare card, not their credit card, to receive the healthcare they need,” said Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
“No Australian should have to check their bank balance to see if they can afford to see a doctor. That is not who we are, that is not the future we want.“
The promise of expanded bulk-billing is likely to be welcomed by financially-stretched voters, particularly families and younger cohorts who have reported an increasing tendency to delay or cancel visits to doctors because of likely up-front cost.
The government has cited one ABS estimate that around 8.8 per cent of visits are delayed on such grounds. The number of people in their 20s not going to the doctor has tripled because of cost over the past three years.
But Labor’s plan will also depend heavily on whether doctors take up the proposed incentive, particularly in metropolitan areas where rents and staff costs are higher.
The government’s promise goes beyond calls by the nation’s doctors this month for free GP visits to be expanded beyond the current system that covers people aged 16 or younger and concession-card holders to everyone under 35.
However, it does not address the overall rebate structure, which doctors say is too low to cover the cost of common GP visits such as longer consults for mental health care.
Depending on location, Labor proposes to make doctor visits free for all Australians by boosting Medicare rebates to $69.56 from $42.85 for a standard consult in a metropolitan area, to as much as $86.91 in a remote area.
Those increases include an extra 12.5 per cent that will be paid to practices that switch to bulk-billing only.
The government anticipates that its incentives will see the number of fully bulk-billed practices triple to around 4,800 over the next five years. The current number of clinics is estimated by the government at between 7,000 and 8,000.
Australia’s doctors this month called for free GP visits to be expanded to cover people aged 16 or younger and concession-card holders to everyone under 35. (AAP: Julian Smith)
Labor says patients would save around $859 million a year by 2030 in out-of-pocket costs.
The cost to the taxpayer of the bulk-billing expansion when it begins in November if Labor is re-elected starts at $1.1 billion in 2025-26 rising to $2.4 billion in 2028-29. Over the first four years, the total will reach $8.5 billion.
Government sources said the “majority” of that cost was factored into December’s mid-year budget update, with the rest to be accounted for in the forthcoming “budget update”.
The package means “nine out of 10 GP visits will be bulk billed by 2030”, the government said.
It is understood that number includes more than 80 federally funded “urgent care” clinics.
As of December, some 77.5 per cent of all GP visits were bulk-billed nationally, which is around 7.8 out of every 10 visits, according to calculations by the ABC.
The bulk-billing incentive is a payment to encourage doctors to directly bill Medicare for services, reducing or eliminating a patient’s out-of-pocket costs.
Labor in 2023 tripled the incentive that currently applies to children under 16 and pensioners and concession card holders.
Speculation has been growing for months that Labor would unveil additional cost-of-living relief in the lead-up to the next federal election, due no later than May 17.
Mr Albanese will showcase the bulk-billing announcement at a US-style campaign rally in Launceston on Sunday, where he will brand Mr Dutton as a Medicare wrecker.
“Labor built Medicare, we will protect it and improve it for all Australians,” he said.
“This is a policy that lifts up our entire nation and ensures no one is held back, and no one is left behind.“
Health Minister Mark Butler said Mr Dutton sought to end bulk-billing with a co-payment in 2014 and then froze rebates for six years.
“There is no question that when it comes to Medicare, you’ll be worse off under Dutton.”
The Coalition rejects those charges, pointing to figures showing the GP bulk-billing rate rose from 82.5 per cent in 2013, when Tony Abbott became prime minister, to 88.5 per cent at the time of 2022 election. That period included a surge during the pandemic.
It has since declined to 77.5 per cent.
The government believes that rate is likely to keep falling without action.
