Bulk-billing at centre of Labor election pitch, attack on Dutton

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is gearing up to make major boosts to bulk-billing, urgent care clinics and the GP workforce as he seeks to turn Medicare into a key plank of his cost-of-living pitch at the upcoming federal election. As Labor fights to increase its record low primary vote, the government is working on policies to make it cheaper to see the doctor and emphasise its focus on Medicare. It will play up a contrast with Opposition Leader Peter Dutton, whose record as health minister in the Abbott government was contentious due to an attempt to cut rebates and introduce a mandatory fee for GP visits .

Health Minister Mark Butler at an urgent-care clinic in September. Credit: Eddie Jim Government sources, speaking confidentially because the policy was unfinalised, said they expected to lift the bulk-billing incentive paid to GPs and pledge more urgent care clinics to broaden their national coverage. Labor is also mulling a second-term overhaul of the way GPs are paid under Medicare, moving away from fees for appointments towards a yearly lump sum for clinics that would disincentivise quick, low-value visits.



Albanese is likely to use a set-piece speech to reveal the health promises early this year, ahead of an election in March, April or May at the latest. With Labor and the opposition neck and neck in polling , an April election would allow Labor to avoid delivering a budget deficit in March while also moving out of the orbit of the WA state election, due for March 8. Health Minister Mark Butler said Labor would put Medicare at the centre of its election agenda.

“Labor will lay out our plan to keep working to deliver more doctors, more bulk-billing and more urgent care,” he said. Those pledges come on top of the government’s $3.5 billion in spending on bulk-billing incentives in the 2023 budget, which tripled the bonus paid to doctors who don’t charge concession patients extra for visits.

It has helped stall the freefall of bulk-billing, lifting national rates from 76.5 per cent in the 2023 September quarter to 77.6 per cent a year later, directed at children, pensioners and regional areas.

Labor has also opened 87 Medicare urgent care clinics, which offer a subsidised alternative to the GP or emergency department. Butler is yet to outline a plan for system reform after coming into government saying general practice was “in a truly parlous state” and needed modernising. He is sitting on several reviews of the system, which advise transitioning away from a funding model that relies on paying doctors for every visit and moving towards lump sums for clinics.

These decisions will be deferred until after the election. Dr Michael Wright, president of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, said Butler’s boost to bulk-billing incentives had put a safety net under general practice but were not enough. “We need a longer-term plan to increase the funding in general practice,” he said.

“It needs to be more comprehensive, so that Medicare becomes what Australians need into the future.” He also queried the government’s plan to expand urgent care clinics. “We’re still waiting for an evaluation of these centres.

We haven’t seen whether they’re providing value for money.” Wright welcomed more investment in the GP workforce, and said the college had sought funding to lift the number of doctors it trains by 100 more people each year for the next five years. The government’s election pitch carries echoes of Labor’s infamous “Medi-scare” campaign from 2016.

In comments to this masthead, Butler said that “Labor will strengthen Medicare, while Peter Dutton will wreck it.” “The Liberal Party describes our investments in Medicare as ‘wasteful’ and will close the urgent care clinics,” Butler said. “Peter Dutton has form in this area, as the health minister who tried to abolish bulk-billing altogether, jack up medicine prices and make everyone pay a fee at the emergency department.

” The opposition is pushing back against a repeat of the Medi-scare attack. Opposition health spokeswoman Anne Ruston said last month that Labor was treating people “like mugs” after Treasurer Jim Chalmers said medicines were not safe under the Coalition . “It has become clear that a desperate Albanese Labor government is attempting to reheat their disgraced Mediscare campaign in an attempt to distract from their failures,” Ruston said.

“The Coalition always has, and always will, invest in Medicare.” The Coalition has not threatened cuts to health spending, but nor has it revealed major policies for fixing general practice and boosting Medicare. Ruston said the opposition wanted to double the number of subsidised psychologist sessions people can access, and said Butler’s rhetoric did not match reality given bulk-billing rates remained lower than they had been under the Coalition.

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