Labor has officially announced it will lift the Medicare rebate freeze if it wins government, prompting Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt to publish a series of tweets on the LNP’s achievements since being in government.
Hunt posted that GP bulk-billing is up nearly 4 percent from 82.2 percent under Labor, claiming that more patients are seeing their local GP without having to pay out of pocket costs.
Whilst statistics obtained from the Department of Health do show an increase in the bulk-billing rate, these stats only show the proportion of services being bulk-billed, rather than the proportion of patients. An AIHW report found only two in every three people were bulk-billed for GP visits between 2016 and 2017, calling Hunt’s claims into question.