Kym Richardson (Kingston, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is addressed to the Minister for Health and Ageing. Would the minister update the House on how the government’s Strengthening Medicare package continues to lift the rate of bulk-billing across Australia and in my electorate of Kingston?

Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is interesting, isn’t it, that it is this side of the House which is suddenly very interested in bulk-billing and that there is such silence from members opposite. The member for Kingston is understandably interested because in just one year the bulk-billing rate in his electorate has gone up by almost 13 per cent. I can inform the House that the GP bulk-billing rate went up again in the March quarter. It is the ninth successive quarterly increase and it takes the national GP bulk-billing rate up to 75.7 per cent—that is, 9.2 percentage points higher than in December 2003. That means almost nine million GP consultations a year that were previously not bulk-billed are now bulk-billed. The GP bulk-billing rate for children under 16 is up to 83 per cent. It is an all-time high. The GP bulk-billing rate in country areas is at 69.9 per cent. It is an all-time high.

Members opposite say the GP bulk-billing rate is not what it was in 1996. Let us look at overall bulk-billing rates for GPs and specialists. They were 71.1 per cent in March 1996. In March 2006 the overall bulk-billing rate was 72.2 per cent. Bulk-billing is not the be-all and end-all of Medicare, but it is important. It should be widely available, especially for pensioners and children. This government is not only the best friend that Medicare has ever had but, on these figures, the best friend bulk-billing has ever had.