Exclusive: The Department of Health has published a geographical breakdown of bulk-billing data, revealing disparities in how people access primary care
Fewer than 65 per cent of Australians now have all their GP appointments bulk-billed, but the biggest black spots are in the ACT and Tasmania where more than half the population cannot see a doctor without paying out-of-pocket fees.
Victorian GP Bernard Shiu said his clinic in Geelong had reduced its bulk-billing rate from up to 80 per cent to around 30 per cent over the last seven years.The federal health department published a geographic breakdown of bulk-billing data for the first time on Monday, revealing disparities in how people access primary care across Australia as the governmentThe highest bulk-billing of patients in metropolitan Melbourne is in the north-west primary health network at 74.
“If you’re the only one there not bulk-billing you really have to offer something that no one else can”. Whereas other people in more affluent areas expected to pay a gap, he said. “As soon as they come out, they already have their credit card ready.” Access was worse outside metropolitan areas: only about half of people living in Tasmania , the Murray region , the Hunter, New England and Central Coast regions of NSW , Western Victoria and country South Australia had all their doctors’ visits bulk-billed last year.Forty per cent or more of people were also paying out-of-pocket in central and northern Queensland, country Western Australia, the Murrumbidgee region and the NSW North Coast, which was last year ravaged by floods.
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