Both the ACT and Federal governments have been trying to boost GP bulk-billing rates. Photo: Ian Bushnell.
The number of GPs offering bulk billing in Canberra has increased since the Federal Government announced incentives to try to make visiting the doctor more affordable, but some people aren’t impressed by the numbers.
According to Cleanbill’s latest Blue Report, 11.5 per cent of the territory’s GP clinics are now fully bulk billing patients, a jump from 3.3 per cent in 2025. Cleanbill’s first report in 2023 found only 5.5 per cent of Canberra’s GP clinics were fully bulk billed.
The report said the impacts of the Commonwealth’s bulk-billing changes were “mixed but encouraging”.
“On the bulk-billing side, we’re now seeing a complete reversal of the trends we’ve observed over the last three years,” it noted.
“The proportion of fully bulk-billing GP clinics has almost doubled to over 40 per cent nationally, largely driven by over 1000 clinics switching from private/mixed billing to fully bulk billing in 2025.”
The Cleanbill report examined 101 GP clinics in the ACT. It does not take into account nurse-led practitioner clinics, clinics that are only available to certain segments of the population (such as university GPs), or Medicare Urgent Care Clinics.
The report also revealed that for those people not accessing bulk-billed appointments, the cost of seeing a doctor continues to rise.
“Almost all jurisdictions have observed a double-digit percentage increase in out-of-pocket costs since 2025,” it stated.
“The average total cost of a standard consultation in the ACT [before the Medicare rebate is applied] and Tasmania now exceeds $100.”
It calculated the average out-of-pocket cost for Canberrans to be $57.96, the second highest in the country.
The report noted the rise in out-of-pocket costs would have been influenced by the higher number of fully bulk-billing clinics, theorising clinics that had charged lower fees were more likely to have switched to full bulk billing.
But this wasn’t the sole driver of higher costs.
“Even once newly fully bulk-billing clinics have been controlled for, average out-of-pocket costs have still increased by 6.5 per cent nationwide since 2025,” the report noted.
In December, the ACT Government was asked by the Greens about the number of full-time-equivalent bulk-billing clinics in Canberra, and how this figure had changed over the past five years.
In a recently published response, Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith said such data wasn’t available at either an ACT or national level.
“As at 30 June 2025, there were 422.5 GP FTE in the ACT, representing a 1.1 per cent increase over the past five years, according to data published by the Australian Government,” she responded.
“The Australian Government recently announced that, as a result of its bulk-billing initiatives, there are now 11 fully bulk-billing practices in the ACT … [and], in late October, federal Labor representatives stated that more than 44,700 additional bulk-billed visits have been delivered in the ACT since the bulk-billing incentive was tripled for children and concession card holders.”
Health modelling indicates demand for GP services both nationally and in the ACT will continue to outstrip supply, driven by population growth, ageing and chronic diseases.
“This modelling suggests that to meet demand for GP services in the ACT in 2025 would require 541.9 GP FTE and that demand is projected to grow by approximately 15-20 per cent over the next five years,” Ms Stephen-Smith said.
The ACT Government committed more than $7 million in the 2025-26 Budget to improve both the sustainability of GP practices, and the accessibility and affordability of primary care.
Presented with the latest Cleanbill data, ACT Greens leader Shane Rattenbury said an increase from 3 to 11 per cent was not “anything to brag about”.
“We’re still the lowest bulk-billing city in the country, with the second-highest out-of-pocket costs. We’ve also had the smallest growth of any jurisdiction since the incentives came in,” he said.
“Data shows that the number of GPs in the ACT has grown by a meagre 1.1 per cent over the past five years. When compared to population growth, the number of GPs per capita is actually decreasing.”
Mr Rattenbury acknowledged the Commonwealth’s incentive as “helpful” but said there still didn’t appear to be a clear strategy to increase and retain the number of bulk-billing doctors in Canberra.
“Through the Supply and Confidence Agreement with the ACT Greens, the Labor Government committed to providing an additional 160,000 bulk-billed visits to the GP every year by 2028. While the Greens had a plan to deliver that, it is unclear how the Labor Party plan to,” he said.
“Unfortunately, this government still seems to be more focused on injecting more and more money into their burgeoning emergency hospital system rather than where it would be most useful — preventing people getting sick in the first place. It’s the literal equivalent to having an ambulance at the bottom of the hill.”
Mr Rattenbury urged the Federal Government to reclassify Canberra as a regional location, which would allow international doctors to fulfil their visa requirement to practise in a country area.
“Given the low bulk-billing rates in the ACT, and the fact that many residents in the rural and regional towns in the Canberra region rely on the provision of health services within the city, it only makes sense that Canberra should be reclassified in order to incentivise international doctors.”
