Whether or not the national bulk billing rate ever reaches the health minister’s goal, it is already a reality for Australia’s most vulnerable patients.
Medicare data reveals that GPs are already bulk billing nine in 10 consults for patients who are living in the most disadvantaged areas of Australia, the most remote areas of Australia, are younger than 16, are older than 64 or have a concession card.
To be clear, the June quarter Medicare non-referred GP consult bulk billing rate for all Australians was 84.1%.
This number catches all GP activities, no matter the age of the patient, their concession status or where they live.
Health minister Mark Butler’s goal is to make that 84.1% shift upward to 90% by the end of the decade.
It’s a big task; when it was first announced, it was met with general disbelief.
But Medicare statistics released earlier this week show it is already a reality for the most vulnerable Australians.
In terms of Socio-Economic Indexes for Areas (SEIFA) disadvantage quintiles, the bulk billing rate for patients in the most disadvantaged locations was 92.8% for the most recent fiscal quarter.
For the second-most disadvantaged quintile the rate was 88.1%.
Patients in the highest SEIFA quintile were bulk billed the lowest of any group, at 72.8%.
Related
Of course, this is just one measure of disadvantage; it does not take into account rurality, age or concession status.
But the results were similar across all of these measures, too.
Patients in the most remote areas of Australia, MM7 locations, were bulk billed for 93.7% of consults. The bulk billing rates for MM 5 and 6 regions were 89.1% and 86.3% respectively.
The Modified Monash Model level with the lowest bulk billing rate was the most urban, MM1, at 82.8%.
Patients who were under 16 were bulk billed for 91.9% of consults, while patients over the age of 64 were bulk billed for 90% of consults.
Patients of any age with a concession card were billed 93.6% of the time; this number rose to 97.1% for patients with a concession card who were under the age of 16.
Access the full datasets here.
