Bulk billing in the regional city is growing at the second-fastest rate in all of Australia.
Health minister Mark Butler has stopped by Bendigo, where bulk billing rates have skyrocketed, to publicly thank the people who made it all possible – other politicians, of course.
The latest round of Medicare statistics put Bendigo’s GP non-referred attendance bulk billing rate at 87.6% for the 2026 March quarter, up from 74.8% for the previous March quarter.
In comparison, the national GP bulk billing rate was 81.9% and the Victorian state average was 83.7% for the March 2026 quarter.
In March of the previous year, these numbers were 77.3% and 78.3%, respectively. This means that Bendigo has effectively gone from lagging behind the national and state bulk billing averages to leading them.
While Bendigo’s bulk billing rate is by no means the highest in Australia – that honour goes to the Sydney suburb of Mount Druitt – Mr Butler said it does represent the biggest uplift in bulk billing rates.
“No electorate out of the 150 electorates in the country has seen a bigger increase in bulk billing than this one, with only one exception up in Darwin,” he told media on Tuesday.
“The numbers are, frankly, jaw-dropping. Those people without a concession card are now seeing bulk billing rates of well over 80%, from just 50% a few years ago to well over 80%.
“In Bendigo and the surrounding towns, pensioners are now seeing bulk billing rates of around 94%, when a few years ago they were down as low as 80%.”
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When asked for his opinion on why Bendigo in particular had seen greater increases in bulk billing, Mr Butler said it was “very significantly” down to local MP Lisa Chesters’ advocacy.
“Across the country, Labor members are obviously committed to this,” he said.
“For Labor, Medicare is just such a central part of our reason for being as a party.”
He went on to call bulk billing the “beating heart” of Medicare and to call out its erstwhile detractors.
“The doctors’ groups when we first introduced Medicare were very opposed to it, the Liberal Party was opposed to it, Peter Dutton tried to abolish it when he was the health minister,” Mr Butler said.
“But we’ve built this up, we’ve put the dollars on the table, and Lisa’s advocacy in this community has meant more practices have taken up that offer than really almost every other part of Australia.”
Practice manager Kavini Rodrigo, who works at clinic Bendigo Doctors, told The Medical Republic that her clinic had made the decision to go from mixed billing to universal bulk billing when the new incentives went live in November last year.
“Since last November, our patient numbers have grown,” she said.
“The major reason is because we are a fully bulk billing clinic. It’s not just the consultations that we bulk bill. We bulk bill a lot of minor procedures as well, such as ear syringing, wound dressings, and care plans and health assessments for eligible patients.
“… Our patient numbers have grown immensely in the last seven, eight months.”
While the incentives only apply to GP non-referred attendance items, Ms Rodrigo said her clinic had made the decision to go a step farther and also bulk bill minor procedures.
“From my perspective, as a patient, if I had to pay money for something … like a wound dressing, which is minor, in the current economy, it’s actually really hard to afford,” she said.
“If I have to pay for a minor procedure, if I have to pay for my health, it’s really not convenient at all.”
TMR contacted multiple practices in and around the Bendigo area for comment.
