Labor’s $8.5bn spend for ‘free’ doctor visits in Medicare pledge

Anthony Albanese has moved to make Medicare a key feature of the election campaign but has not outlined how the massive funding increase will be paid for.

Health Minister Mark Butler and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Anthony Albanese has moved to make Medicare a key feature of the election campaign by pouring an extra $8.5 billion into bulk billing and training for healthcare workers, with 90 per cent of GP visits to be fully covered by the taxpayer by 2030.

But the mammoth election pledge has not been accompanied by any revenue measures or spending offsets, in a move that worsens the structural budget deficit.

The Prime Minister will on Sunday unveil plans to increase payments to doctors who provide taxpayer-funded consultations, encouraging GPs to bulk bill rather than charge their patients gap fees.

The policy will see an expansion of the bulk billing incentive so it for the first time applies to all Australians, while there will also be a 12.5 per cent loading payment for practices that exclusively bulk bill.

The bulk billing incentive – which was tripled by Labor in 2023 at a cost of $3.5 billion – is currently a special top-up payment of between $21.35 and $41.10 to doctors who provide Medicare-funded consultations with pensioners, concession card holders and families with children.

The government expects the policy, to begin in November, to deliver an extra 18 million taxpayer-funded GP visits a year, lifting the bulk billing rate from 77 per cent to 90 per cent by the end of the decade.

Labor is forecasting patients will save $859 million a year on doctor visits by 2030, with the number of fully bulk-billed practices to triple to 4800.

In an aim to portray Peter Dutton as an enemy of Medicare, Labor will declare the funding increase fully offsets the cuts to the universal health insurance scheme when the Opposition Leader was the health minister in the Abbott government.

“Labor built Medicare, we will protect it and improve it for all Australians,” Mr Albanese said.

“I want every Australian to know they only need their Medicare card, not their credit card, to receive the healthcare they need.

“No Australian should have to check their bank balance to see if they can afford to see a doctor. That is not who we are. That is not the future we want for Australia.

“This is a policy that lifts up our entire nation and ensures no one is held back, and no one is left behind.”

The policy will also include funding for the training of 2000 new GPs a year by 2028, as well as 400 nursing scholarships.

The package is forecast to cost $8.5bn over four years, reaching $2.4bn in 2028-29 as the number of doctors bulk billing grows over time.

Under the funding increase, total payments to doctors who bulk bill could increase by 62 per cent for a standard consultation in a capital city, from $42.85 to $69.56.

This would increase to $80.71 for a consultation in a regional centre, $84.86 in a small rural town and $86.91 in a remote area – a boost of between 93 per cent and 103 per cent for doctors in the regions.

The government’s figures include the 12.5 per cent incentive for those in practices that exclusively bulk bill, which will not be the case for all.

The funding for GP visits is expected to take pressure off the hospital system, as the federal government remains in deadlock with state and territory governments over the next five-year hospital funding agreement.

Health Minister Mark Butler said Labor would “put back into Medicare every dollar that Peter Dutton’s rebate freeze took out”.

“Australia’s doctors voted Peter Dutton the worst health minister in Medicare history for a reason,” he said.

“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.

“There is no question that when it comes to Medicare, you’ll be worse off under Dutton.”