'Unfortunate trend': Regional Aussies hit hardest by bulk-billing crisis

Healthcare data company Cleanbill has released an electorate breakdown of bulk-billing rates nationally.

The report takes the data from the 2023 Health of the Nation Report and compares it to the data collected for the 2025 Blue Report on an electorate-by-electorate basis.

The data found regional Australians spend $44.12 in out-of-pocket expenses compared to $41.12 for city Australians.

Meanwhile, the average regional electorate only has 14.9 per cent of clinics that bulk-bill compared to 21.5 per cent in city electorates.

The findings have been rejected by federal health minister Mark Butler as "unreliable" describing the methodology as a "headline-grabbing phone poll by a private company".

"Official data shows our record investment to strengthen Medicare has stopped the freefall bulk-billing that was created under the Liberal and Nationals Government," he said.

Cleanbill founder and CEO James Gillespie told ACM that they collect data "in the same way any Australian adult would, by calling every GP clinic we can find".

"So, when you see this data, you're seeing what it's actually like for a regular Australian trying to find a GP in their local area," he said.

Mr Gillespie described it as an "unfortunate trend" that regional electorates have less access to bulk-billing but the cost of visiting a non-bulk-billing GP is higher.

Regional electorates with the largest increase in bulk billing are Gilmore (12.7 per cent), Cowper (10.9 per cent ), Paterson (9.6 per cent ), Leichhardt (7.8 per cent ) and Dobell (7 per cent).

But some regions have gone backwards.

The regional electorates with the biggest decreases in bulk billing rates were Blair (-29.5 per cent), La Trobe (-28.9 per cent), Macquarie (-22.6 per cent), Herbert (-19.9 per cent) and Wright (-18.8 per cent).

Currently, 15 electorates nationally contain no available bulk-billing GP clinics.

These include the regional electorates of Lyne, Newcastle and Shortland in NSW, Lyons and Braddon in Tasmania, Mayo in South Australia and Fairfax in Queensland.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the number of Australians who avoided seeing a GP because of cost concerns had grown from around 600,000 in 2022 to over 1.5 million in 2024.