Health Minister backs MPs’ letters pressuring practices to bulk bill

Despite GPs’ concerns of ‘pressure tactics’, the Federal Health Minister has thrown his support behind local politicians sending letters directly to general practices urging them to universally bulk bill.
 
‘Of course local MPs are speaking to doctors in their communities about the benefits of bulk billing,’ Federal Health and Ageing Minister Mark Butler told newsGP.
 
It comes as several GPs and practices have received letters from Labor politicians urging their practice to switch to a 100% bulk-billing model.
 
In March, a Victorian practice was told ‘constituents have shared their disappointment that [clinic’s name] is currently not a fully bulk-billing clinic’.
 
In December, letters circulated in Western Australia from a Labor senator, encouraging communities to advocate for GPs to adopt universal bulk billing and authorising the senator to write to practices on their behalf.
 
A separate occasion saw a federal Labor minister in another state encouraging GPs who were not 100% bulk billing to access resources to ‘better understand’ the ‘financial benefits’ of the reforms.
 
It is an initiative backed by Minister Butler.
 
‘We promised Australians more bulk billing and that is what we have delivered – GP bulk billing has increased in every state and territory,’ he said.
 
‘Australians can now access more than 3500 Medicare bulk-billing practices across the country, and that number continues to grow every week.
 
‘Doctors and practices are moving back to bulk billing because it works for patients and it works for their practices.’
 
According to a March newsGP poll, 7% of respondents have now received a letter from a politician encouraging them to switch to a 100% bulk-billing model.
 
In response, RACGP President Dr Michael Wright invited politicians to visit their local general practice to hear firsthand why universal bulk billing does not work for everyone.
 
‘Rather than writing these letters, a better way to understand the billing policies of a practice and the financial pressures general practice is facing would be to visit a practice, or speak with your local GP advocate, or me,’ he told newsGP.
 
‘If any politician wants to know why a practice has a particular billing policy, they can talk to the RACGP, and we’ll be able to explain in detail.

‘At GPs@Parliament last month, many politicians were keen to speak with GPs to understand how we are providing increasingly complex care in consultations, the high-quality and cost-effective care we provide and the pressure we are taking off the rest of the health system.’
 
The letters follow a separate newsGP poll which revealed 71% of respondents said they would not be participating in the Bulk Billing Practice Incentive Program when it launched on 1 November 2025.
 
Just weeks after that poll’s conclusion, Minister Butler confirmed he would ‘intervene in the market’ to ensure more practices bulk billed.
 
RACGP Vice President Dr Ramya Raman echoed Dr Wright’s concerns, describing the letters as ‘political theatre’.
 
‘It’s shifting the responsibility onto GPs while ignoring the structural problem, and the structural problem here is that Medicare rebates no longer cover the cost of delivering quality care for patients,’ she told newsGP.
 
‘It’s very challenging to run a modern medical practice on 1990s funding structures, and it is a concern that elected officials are writing to general practices asking them to change how they bill.
 
‘Elected officials are writing to their general practices knowing these practices are equally constituents and members of their community, and these are members of the community who are looking after sick patients.
 
‘GPs are not choosing against their patients, we’re actually responding to a system that hasn’t kept pace with the reality of care.’
 
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BBPIP bulk billing Bulk Billing Practice Incentive Program Mark Butler