Revealed: more Australians than ever are paying to see a doctor as new data shows worst hit areas

The number of Australians who are fully bulk billed by their GP has dropped significantly in just three years, with one electorate experiencing a decline of 18%, a Guardian Australia investigation reveals.

Data obtained exclusively by Guardian Australia reveals a 4% decline across the country, with a far bigger drop in some areas, including the northern suburbs of Perth, the central coast of NSW, and areas between Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast in Queensland. In WA, there was a decline across all electorates between 2019 and 2022.

The most pronounced drop was seen in the two northern Perth electorates of Pearce and Moore.

In Moore, which includes the suburbs of Joondalup and Stirling, 58.4% of patients had all appointments bulk billed in 2019-20. By 2021-22 that had dropped to 47.9%. This represents a decline of 10.5 percentage points, or an overall decline of 18%.

Charles Maskell-Knight, a health policy expert and a former senior public servant in the commonwealth Department of Health, analysed the data for Guardian Australia and said the overall decline in bulk billing has important implications for demand on hospital emergency departments.

Previously, GP bulk-billing rates by electorate were only available up to the 2018-19 financial year. In August 2022, Guardian Australia asked the Department of Health for the same data to the end of the 2021-22 financial year, but was referred to Services Australia. After a lengthy request process, the data was provided last week.

According to separate Department of Health analysis provided exclusively to Guardian Australia, the 24m bulk-billed Covid vaccines in the 2021-22 financial year inflated the proportion of people who had all their GP visits bulk billed by 1.5 percentage points.

The analysis was provided by the office of the health minister, Mark Butler, after Guardian Australia obtained the bulk-billing figures by electorate from Services Australia.

Asked why the data was not regularly released and whether his government would commit to publishing it from now on, the health minister said from 20 February all bulk-billing data will be made public.

He said the Department of Health will regularly publish the updated methodology for determining bulk-billing rates, along with a geographic breakdown by primary health network, rather than electorate, as this would more accurately reveal the unique care needs of communities.

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