Australians receive all GP care bulk-billed at 63% rate

RACGP's annual health report due Wednesday says 63% of Australians had all GP care bulk-billed, The Guardian reported Oct. 25, up from 56% in 2024 and 2025.

Evidence grade: Moderate (consistent observational data or small trials). The access stake is affordability: the report draws on a survey of 2,766 GPs and Australian Bureau of Statistics data, while the 2026 rate remains below 70% in 2019.

Bulk-billing lets doctors bill Medicare directly rather than charging the patient at the visit. The RACGP report says the higher patient rate is “likely a reflection of the federal government’s recent investment in Medicare bulk billing incentives”.

The survey found 26% of GPs said they bulk-billed all patients, compared with 12% in 2025. The Guardian said the share of doctors doing so had more than doubled after extra financial incentives were introduced for doctors and practices.

RACGP president Michael Wright said the findings indicated “greater affordability across the healthcare system”. “For those patients who have a preferred GP, more than two-in-three were always able to see them when needed,” he said. “These are positive outcomes and show that when governments invest in general practice, patients benefit.

Funding gets results.”

The November incentive gave practices that bulk-bill all eligible services for all Medicare patients an additional 12.5% top-up payment, split between the practice and the doctor, according to the report cited by The Guardian.

Other affordability indicators moved in the same direction. The report, using Australian Bureau of Statistics data, found the share of Australians delaying GP care because of cost fell to 7.7% in 2024–25 from 8.8% in 2023–24.

The report links the timing of incentives with higher bulk-billing, but it does not show whether the association reflects policy alone. It also does not measure whether patients became healthier.

Luke Slawomirski, a health economist with the Australia Institute, said the survey covered about 7% of the GP workforce and could reflect selection bias. “We should be mindful of possible selection bias and distinguish GPs’ reported experiences from administrative data and measures of patient outcomes,” Slawomirski said.

He said affordability and billing rates are only part of primary care performance. “We should judge the investment by whether people are healthier and receiving better care, rather than how many consultations are bulk-billed,” he said.

Medicare administrative data show 81% of GP consultations were bulk-billed in 2025–26, up from 78% a year earlier, according to The Guardian. Slawomirski said that measure counts services, while the RACGP figure counts patients.

Wright also said “we can’t measure success solely by bulk-billing rates”. The RACGP is seeking higher patient Medicare rebates for longer consultations and an independent primary care pricing authority to align Medicare funding with the cost of care.

Slawomirski said reforms should move beyond fee-for-service payments toward blended funding models, especially for people with chronic and complex conditions. The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare estimated potentially preventable hospitalisations cost the economy $7.7 billion in 2023–24.

The full RACGP annual health of the nation report is due Wednesday, when its survey detail and policy recommendations are expected to be published.

Source: news article, The Guardian Health, Oct. 25, 2026.

Atlas360 reports health research and does not provide medical advice.