Australians have been promised 20 million free visits to the doctor under a Labor election pledge, as the Coalition indicates it will back the extra health funding.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has committed to spend $8.5 billion expanding bulk billing and training GPs and nurses, if his government is returned to power, with an election due by May 17.
“I want every Australian to know they only need their Medicare card, not their credit card, to receive the health care they need,” he is expected to say in Launceston.
“This is a policy that lifts up our entire nation and ensures no one is held back and no one is left behind.”
Fewer GP clinics have been taking on bulk-billed patients as they struggle to keep up with rising operational costs and increasing service complexity.
Health Minister Mark Butler said the modelling done on the policy showed there would be 20 million additional free visits to the doctor.
“I do want to see a situation where people go to the doctor if they feel they need to,” he told Sky News on Sunday.
Shadow Treasurer Angus Taylor said Labor’s promise was “playing catch up.”
“We’re not going to get in the way of Labor cleaning up the mess that it has made, and it’s important that that mess be cleaned up,” he told Sky News.
Australia’s bulk-billing rate plummeted to 20.7 percent at the start of 2025, down from 35.7 percent two years earlier, according to data released by health care directory Cleanbill in January.
The proposed cash injection would be the biggest investment in Medicare since its creation 40 years ago, the government said.
The Royal Australian College of GPs (RACGP) welcomed the government’s workforce commitment to train 2000 new GPs every year by 2028 and incentivise more junior doctors to become specialist GPs, as part of the package.
But RACGP President Michael Wright flagged that the proposal for a universal bulk-billing scheme wouldn’t necessarily mean everyone could access free medical care.
“Extending bulk-billing incentives to everyone won’t necessarily mean everyone gets bulk billed, because patient rebates are still too low to cover the cost of care,” he said.
Butler took aim at Opposition Leader Peter Dutton, honing in on his time as a previous health minister.
“Peter Dutton tried to end bulk billing with a GP tax and then started a six-year freeze to Medicare rebates that froze GP incomes and stripped billions out of Medicare,” he said.
The coalition has defended Dutton’s track record, claiming a 1.5 percent increase in bulk-billing rates during his term as health minister in 2013 and a more than 10 percent fall in rates since Labor took office in 2022.
