Despite a distinct lack of enthusiasm from the sector, the health minister continues to insist that the majority of practices will be better off bulk billing from November.
The national broadcaster has surveyed GPs and found Labor’s $8.5 billion Medicare pledge comes up wanting in the minds of doctors.
At least 720 of the more than 800 general practitioners surveyed by the ABC said they would not be moving to universal bulk billing come November, when the funding is set to kick in.
The new data reveals that GPs have largely stayed consistent in their feelings toward the funding; polling from the RACGP immediately following the funding announcement indicated that around one in 20 practices planned to switch to universal bulk billing.
Even as a number of major mainstream news outlets – The Australian, The Guardian, Nine Newspapers and now the ABC – are running articles casting doubt on the uptake of the $8.5 billion investment, federal health minister Mark Butler has stuck to his proverbial guns.
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“We have very good data on exactly what … every single GP in the Medicare system is charging,” Mr Butler said on Wednesday.
“And we’ve designed this program using all of those data points.
“We’ve also seen over the last several days, very big GP practice groups confirmed that they will move to a full bulk-billed model after 1 November after our investments.
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“I was in Launceston a couple of days ago at a general practice that said exactly the same thing.
“They’ve done their sums and they recognised that they would be better off under the full bulk billing model we’ve announced over recent weeks.”
Mr Butler said his modelling indicated that three in four general practices would be better off financially by moving to a fully bulk-billed model.
“I’m very confident once GPs themselves and general practices more broadly do the sums, do the maths, they’ll recognise this is not only in the interest of their patients, which is our primary focus, it’s in the interest of their practice as well,” he said.
When asked whether the government would go so far as to consider enforcing bulk billing, though, the minister conceded that he did not have that power.
“We have a constitutional prohibition against conscripting doctors in this country,” Mr Butler said.
“That was a product of a long fight in the 1940s where Labor was battling the Liberal party and the doctors, as we’ve so often done over the course of Australian political history.
“So, we don’t have the legal ability to do that, but we have put in place a payment system that incentivises doctors and practices move into a full bulk-billing model.
“I can’t make them do it, I don’t have the legal power to make them do it, but I’m confident we have designed this in a way that it’s in their interests to do this as well as obviously in the interest of patients.”
The 2025 federal election will be held on 3 May.
