19/10/2025
Health Care Funding Reality Check -Bulk Billing Increase isn’t what it seems.
📢Over the next month we will hear about the Australian Government commencing what they call a major investment into General Practice funding. From November 1st, the bulk billing incentive payment once restricted to low income earners and pension recipients will be extended to every person with a Medicare card, no matter their circumstances. This is being promoted as the reason why “9 out of 10 GP visits will be bulk billed.” 🤦♀️But there is an important caveat — the government is only increasing bulk billing incentives — not the Medicare rebate itself. This does not address the fact that the underlying rebate — the patient’s refund from Medicare — remains totally inadequate to support high-quality General Practice care.
💲Costs increasing faster than rebates
As we’ve spoken about in past editions, rebates were frozen for a decade and, even though annual indexation is again happening, the increases fall well short of real-world cost pressures. Take this year as an example: wages increased by 3.5%, superannuation rose another 0.5%, and health cost inflation was around 6%. So practice costs increased by over 10% in total, yet the rebate only rose 2.4%. This funding shortfall has compounded year on year to the point where rebates now cover only about one-third of the real cost of providing care. 😢
