RACGP Report Finds 63% of Australians Bulk-Billed for All GP Care, Up From 56%

The share of Australian GPs who bulk-bill every patient has more than doubled in a year, according to the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP).

The college's annual health of the nation report is due to be published Wednesday, Oct. 28. It found 26% of surveyed GPs now bulk-bill all of their patients, up from 12% in 2025.

What the numbers show

The report puts the proportion of Australians bulk-billed for all of their GP care at 63%. That is up from 56% in both 2024 and 2025.

It is still short of 2019, when the same report found 70% of patients were fully bulk-billed.

The findings rest on a survey of 2,766 GPs. The report also draws on Australian Bureau of Statistics data. That data shows the share of Australians delaying GP care because of cost fell from 8.8% in 2023-24 to 7.7% in 2024-25.

Medicare's own administrative data tells a related but different story. It shows 81% of GP consultations were bulk-billed in 2025-26, up from 78% the year before. The gap with the RACGP figure comes from what is counted. Medicare measures the share of services bulk-billed, not the share of patients.

The incentive

In November, the federal government introduced extra payments for practices that bulk-bill all eligible services for all Medicare patients. Those clinics receive a 12.5% top-up, split between the practice and the doctor.

The RACGP report says the jump is "likely a reflection of the federal government's recent investment in Medicare bulk billing incentives." The wording is the college's own inference. The report does not claim to have isolated the incentive from other factors.

RACGP president Dr Michael Wright read the numbers as a win. He said they indicate "greater affordability across the healthcare system."

"These are positive outcomes and show that when governments invest in general practice, patients benefit. Funding gets results," Wright said.

He added that among patients with a preferred GP, more than two in three were always able to see that doctor when needed.

The caution from outside the college

Dr Luke Slawomirski, a health economist at the Australia Institute, called the bulk-billing findings "certainly good news." He then flagged the limits of the data.

The survey represents about 7% of the GP workforce. "We should be mindful of possible selection bias and distinguish GPs' reported experiences from administrative data and measures of patient outcomes," he said.

Slawomirski's larger point is about what is being measured. A health system, he said, depends on access, quality of care and patient outcomes, not only affordability.

"We should judge the investment by whether people are healthier and receiving better care, rather than how many consultations are bulk-billed," he said.

He also pointed to what the headline figure leaves out. One-third of patients are unable to see a GP when they need to, which he called "a sizeable access problem."

The college agrees on the limits

Wright did not dispute the point. "We can't measure success solely by bulk-billing rates," he said.

He warned of a risk that "inequities could emerge between communities if some patients continue facing higher out-of-pocket costs or reduced access to care."

His proposed fix is more money, aimed at rebates. He wants Medicare patient rebates to reflect "the real costs of providing care for complex and chronic conditions."

What taxpayers are buying

The incentive is paid from the federal budget. None of the figures released so far put a dollar cost on the 12.5% top-up or say how much of it has gone to practices that already bulk-billed everyone before it existed.

That matters for judging the policy. The 63% figure shows more patients paying nothing at the counter. It does not show whether waits shortened, whether chronic conditions are better managed, or whether health outcomes improved. Both Wright and Slawomirski say those are the tests that count.

The survey also leaves open how many GPs who now bulk-bill everyone were already doing so, and how many changed their billing because of the payment. The two data sets already disagree on the headline, 63% of patients against 81% of consultations, because they count different things.

The full RACGP report is due Wednesday, Oct. 28. It will show whether the college's recommendation on rebates for complex and chronic care is accompanied by cost estimates or outcome data beyond the bulk-billing rate.