WA bulk billing: No interim targets set for number of GP clinics signing on to Labor’s election promise

Labor has been criticised for failing to set measurable targets for its flagship $8.5 billion election pledge to boost GP bulk billing in Australia. Ahead of Anthony Albanese’s thumping election victory on May 3, he had vowed to make nine out of 10 GP visits bulk billed by 2030 though the pricey Medicare plan. Labor expects 4800 of around 7000 GP clinics in Australia would be better off under the incentive plan — triple the number fully bulk billing before the March federal election. Health officials told Senate estimates on Thursday that 2902 had signed up to the scheme since its November 1 launch, of which 1675 were already fully bulk billing. It comes after The West Australian revealed that the numbers of WA GPs signing on had lagged just a fortnight into the plan. Of the registered clinics, 1092 had been converted from previously mixed billing and 135 were new practices to Medicare. Shadow Health Minister Anne Ruston used the hearing to raise concerns that the multi-billion-dollar plan didn’t have any specific targets. Health department official Penny Shakespeare told Senator Ruston while “impact analysis” was undertaken to give estimates of the uptake “the government has not published a target for June 2026”. Despite repeated requests for interim targets, the resourcing deputy secretary failed to provide any, only reiterating Labor’s 2030 commitment to raise the bulk billing rate to 90 per cent. Senator Ruston accused Labor of forcing taxpayers to place blind faith in the plan in the hopes it would deliver a “magical answer” in five years’ time. “There’s no quantitative measure at all that has been provided. Somehow, we’re on this trust journey with the Government,” Senator Ruston said. “There was a lot of money allocated to these measures. How can we know you’re on target?” As the hearing got fiery, health department secretary Blair Comley chimed in to claim it was not “uncommon” for governments not to have precise targets. But Senator Ruston insisted it wasn’t unreasonable to question the Government’s plan given its significant cost. “It’s not uncommon for governments to set targets over longer periods of time without necessarily having precise interim targets,” Mr Comley said. Under the plan Labor took to the election, GPs will receive an incentive payment for every single patient they bulk bill. Previously, the incentives only applied to children, pensioners, or people with concession cards. All patients at the signed-up clinic must be bulk billed for it to receive a further incentive payment worth 12.5 per of the Medicare benefits schedule amount for the service. Health officials admitted on Thursday that while the department could release the number of clinics which had registered, they wouldn’t know until an assessment in January whether they had complied. Mr Comley said a validation process would take place across January. Clinics that stick to their commitment to bulk billed every patient would then receive their first practice incentive payment in late January. National Disability and Insurance Scheme Minister Jenny McAllister said many GPs would still be considering their business model and insisted it was a significant change. While registration had lagged, officials insisted the overall bulk billing rate had lifted 4 per cent to 81 per cent since the scheme kicked off. Under Senator Ruston’s questioning, health officials revealed WA clinics that were fully bulk billing had lifted from 80 to 176 under the plan. Bulk bill clinics in Tasmania lifted from 18 to 51, Queensland from 271 to 505, Northern Territory had doubled from 22 to 44, and South Australia 51 to 148. In the two largest States, GPs clinics bulk billing lifted from 776 in NSW to 1160, and Victoria’s list jumped from 449 to 803. The Australian Capital Territory had the lowest number of fully bulk billing clinics, with its previous list of eight jumping to 15 clinics. Independent ACT Senator David Pocock questioned whether the figures for the territory were accurate, given only nine clinics were listed on the official Healthdirect website. While GPs signed on to the scheme must be on the official ledger, health officials claimed their numbers were correct and vowed to follow up which clinics registered weren’t included. As some of the clinics in the ACT are specialised, such as Aboriginal health clinics, Senator Pocock asked for information about how many of those clinics were for the general public. Health officials couldn’t answer the question during the hearing, so promised to answer it on notice. As at November, the territory has a bulk billing rate of just 52.3 per cent – well beyond the national average. Senator Ruston also found that the average GP out-of-pocket cost in Australia had lifted from $49.14 per cent in 2024-25 to $50.49 in the September quarter.