The Australian Government's historic investment in strengthening Medicare is delivering more free health care for Australians.
The latest quarterly data released today shows the national GP bulk billing rate was 81.9% for the January to March quarter. This is a 4.6 percentage point increase on the same period last year.
Bulk billing has increased in every state and territory:
- NSW 85.6%, up 4.0 percentage points
- VIC 83.7%, up 5.5 percentage points
- QLD 79.5%, up 4.0 percentage points
- SA 80.4%, up 5.9 percentage points
- WA 74%, up 4.6 percentage points
- TAS 78%, up 5.7 percentage points
- NT 89.8%, up 13.7 percentage points and
- ACT 54.1%, up 1.4 percentage points.
The bulk billing rate for non-concessional patients reached 72.5% for the quarter - up 8.5 percentage points on the same period last year.
The bulk billing rate also grew for patients aged 16 to 64 years - up 7.7 percentage points to 76.2%.
There are now over 3,800 Medicare Bulk Billing practices - more than 1,400 of these were previously mixed billing clinics.
This means that approximately 97 per cent of the population are now within a 20-minute drive of a bulk billing practice.
Medicare Urgent Care Clinics, which are now a permanent part of the nation's health system, have seen over 3 million presentations since the first sites opened in June 2023.
The Darwin Medicare Urgent Care Clinic opens today, meaning 136 clinics are now in operation across Australia, with the one remaining site in Caloundra, Queensland, expected to open in June.
Quotes attributable to Minister Butler:
"These figures show unequivocally that our initiatives to strengthen Medicare are working - changing the face of frontline care delivery and helping keep costs down for Australians - good for their health and good for their hip pockets.
"We haven't just stopped the Medicare freefall under the previous government, we have reversed it and strengthened it - dramatically.
"The government's Medicare Urgent Care Clinics continue to be a game changer in delivering frontline care, with the 3 million visits milestone reached for urgent, but not life threatening, cases."
