Bulk billing Qld: Patients skip doctor appointments as costs soar

Queenslanders are paying more than ever to see a doctor after a spike in appointment fees and a drop in the number of GPs offering bulk billing, a shock new report has revealed.

Work colleagues Julie Minto (left) and Jane Ellis have struggled to find bulk-billing doctors. Picture: Richard Walker

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Queenslanders are paying more than ever to see a doctor after a spike in appointment fees and a drop in the number of GPs offering bulk billing, a shock new report has revealed.

Australian Bureau of Statistics data shows more 1.5m Australians didn’t see a GP in 2023 to 2024 due to the out-of-pocket costs, as the new Blue Report from Cleanbill, released on Monday, highlights an even bleaker picture for primary healthcare in 2025.

The state has seen a 12.6-percentage-point drop in its bulk-billing rate for adult patients in the past two years and is now well below the national average.

Just 13.9 per cent of Queensland doctors offer bulk billing, down from 17.6 per cent the year before and below the national average of 20.7 per cent.

Out-of-pocket costs have jumped 5 per cent in just one year which is more than double the rise in Medicare rebates.

Patients are handing out $43.30 for an appointment today. There has been a steady increase over the past years from $40 in 2023.

From 1995 to 2022, increases to the Medicare rebates averaged just over one per cent a year.

“We still are desperate for a significant boost to Medicare. We need an increase in rebates for longer appointments for people with significant healthcare needs,” Royal Australian College of General Practitioners president Michael Wright told The Courier-Mail.

The doctor said that the current funding did not incentivise clinics to have longer times spent with patients.

RACGP president Dr Michael Wright

Dr Wright said there were different interpretations of bulk billing.

Medicare data shows that in October 2024, 75 per cent of GP visits were bulk-billed.

The Cleanbill research does not count appointments for children and certain services such as Medicare urgent care clinics and nurse-led clinics but has focused on almost 7000 community clinics nationally and 1373 in Queensland.

The RACGP chief said that there had been significant investment into free urgent care clinics from the federal government, but these services were limited to a handful of locations.

“We would prefer that a cash boost would be distributed to uplift all practices,” Dr Wright said.

“Queenslanders deserve access to affordable and quality healthcare within their communities.”

The ABS report for 2023 to 2024 shows that 10.9 per cent of people in the most disadvantaged areas delayed getting, or went without, prescription medication when needed due to cost. More than one fifth delayed or did not see a health professional for their own mental health when needed due to cost, but 66.4 per cent said that they could always see their preferred GP when needed.

The proportion of people who reported that cost was a reason for delaying or not seeing a GP when needed increased to 8.8 per cent in 2023-24, from 7 per cent in 2022-23.
General practitioners continued to be the most common health professionals seen in 2023-24.

Michael and Kristina Trushin from Hendra with their sons Daniel 9, and Konstantin 6. Picture: Lachie Millard

The Cleanbill report showed Australia’s bulk-billing rate also continued to slide, dropping from 35.7 per cent at the start of 2023 to 20.7 per cent at the start of 2025, while out-of-pocket costs had continued to steadily increase.

Brisbane mother-of-two Kristina Trushin said her family had been looking for a bulk-billing GP but could only find one for the children.

“For the adults, there is no bulk billing at all,” she said.

“We changed a few GPs because when you want to go to a GP, you have to wait a week or two to get treated or go to whoever is available, so every time you go to the different ones, there are different rules, but most of the time, kids are bulk-billed and for adults, it’s a no.

“The cost difference between bulk billing and private billing is between $92 and $120 for a visit, and then it’s less than 50 per cent, which you get refunded.”

The Hendra mother expressed concerns about the pressure felt by families when they visited the emergency room after they can’t be attended to by a GP.

She said she asked for an urgent appointment with a doctor to tell her whether her child’s nose was broken and was instead sent to a hospital emergency department where she waited six hours to be told it was just a bruise, not a break.

South East Queensland work colleagues Jane Ellis and Julie Minto have both struggled with trying to find a bulk-billed doctor’s appointment in their area.

How Queensland compares for bulk billing

Ms Ellis said she was shocked by the price when she tried to book a GP appointment for herself and her daughter recently.

“I called my doctor at Ormiston to book my daughter and myself in and they told me I would have to pay the total amount of around $180 upon booking the appointment upfront,” Ms Ellis said.

“I was not happy at all and the reception lady said that was how it was going to be.

“I did ask the lady to mention this to my doctor and I haven’t heard anything back.”

After cancelling both appointments, Ms Ellis said she was left scrambling to find a doctor that bulk billed.

“I am in desperate need of a good doctor and can’t find one or can’t afford it,” she said.

“As far as bulk-billed doctors go, there are not many around and are really only OK for one-off things.”

Meanwhile, Ms Minto said when she recently needed to see her GP, the only available times were weeks away.

With her own bulk-billing doctor booked out, she tried to look for other options, which proved fruitless.

“Doctors seem to be booked out generally a week ahead of when you need to book,” Ms Minto said.

Originally published as Bulk billing Qld: Patients skip doctor appointments as costs soar