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Articles on bulk-billing

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Bulk-billing rates have been trending upwards for well over a decade. AAP Image/Dan Himbrechts

FactCheck: do 86% of people visit the doctor for free?

Yes, 86% of GP visits were bulk-billed in 2017-18, up from 82% when Labor was in power. But they also rose under Labor, while the percentage for “patients” seems to be lower than the percentage for “visits”.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Labor leader Bill Shorten addressed the National Press Club on February 1 and January 31 respectively. AAP Image/Mick Tsikas

FactCheck: are bulk-billing rates falling, or at record levels?

In twin speeches to the National Press Club, Labor leader Bill Shorten said bulk-billing rates are falling, while Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said bulk-billing is at record levels. Who was right?
Was Labor’s shadow health minister Catherine King, pictured here with shadow attorney-general Mark Dreyfus, right about cuts to bulk-billing payments? Dan Himbrechts/AAP

Election FactCheck: has the Coalition cut bulk-billing for pathology and scans ‘to make patients pay more’?

Labor’s shadow health minister Catherine King, said that the government has “cut bulk-billing payments for pathology and diagnostic imaging to make patients pay more”. Is that right?
More than three in every four Medicare-billed pathology tests are analysed by one of two big corporations: Sonic Healthcare and Primary Health Care. Soda_O2/Shutterstock

Blood money: pathology cuts can reduce spending without compromising health

Industry consolidation and technological advances have completely reshaped the pathology industry over recent decades. But the way governments pay for pathology services hasn’t kept up.
The major impediment to realising the ideal of good general practice is that few patients understand it. Alex Proimos/Flickr

What you should expect from your GP

Australia spent $16 billion on GP-related health care in 2012-13. Given that our public health system means each of us is paying for health care through our taxes, what should we expect from doctors?
Tony Abbott and Peter Dutton announce changes to the government’s GP co- payment policy. AAP Image/Lukas Coch

Back to the future with Coalition attacks on Medicare bulk billing

In the government’s latest “scraping away the barnacles” of unpopular and blocked policies, prime minister Tony Abbott and health minister Peter Dutton have announced they’re abandoning the plan to have…

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