Budget incentives for Australian GPs unlikely to increase available bulk-billing appointments, experts say

Health experts say the budget incentive for GPs may encourage those already bulk billing to keep doing so but isn’t a long-term solution to increasing rates. Photograph: Dan Himbrechts/AAP

Budget incentives aimed at GPs are unlikely to increase the number of bulk-billing appointments available, or prompt clinics that have moved to private fees back to providing bulk-billed care, health policy experts and GPs say.

A health policy analyst and former senior public servant of two decades with the federal department of health, Charles Maskell-Knight, said the bulk-billing incentive increases announced in the budget will encourage GPs already bulk billing to keep doing so, but will not reverse the trend of practices charging some patients a private fee or scrapping bulk billing altogether.