Labor pledges 18m extra bulk-billed GP visits a year as part of $8.5bn Medicare funding boost

GP clinics will be incentivised to bulk-bill every patient they see with an additional 12.5% loading on their Medicare rebates. Photograph: Jessica Hromas/The Guardian

Labor has promised 18m extra bulk-billed GP visits a year as part of an $8.5bn investment in Medicare, in an announcement shaping as the centrepiece of the Albanese government’s re-election campaign.

Described by the government as the “single largest investment in Medicare since its creation” more than four decades ago, the policy pledge will also include more than 400 nursing scholarships, and 2,000 more doctors through new general practice training programs.