The bulk-billing incentive – a bonus the federal government pays general practitioners (GPs) when they don’t charge patients a fee – has been supercharged twice in recent years. This has seen a massive increase in spending: the incentive now costs the equivalent of $2.8 billion a year. However, 'GP deserts’ – the communities with the fewest GP services per person – are being left further behind.

Key findings

• In 2023,the bulk-billing incentive was tripled for all but the shortest general face-to-face consultations. Then from November 2025, all patients became eligible, not just children and concession card holders.
• The new spending has boosted bulk-billing rates but also deepened fundamental problems with how GPs are funded. 
• The spending surge has strengthened incentives for GPs to have quick consultations with their patients, sent money to parts of Australia that didn’t need it, and left behind areas that need more funding the most.

This paper proposes that two policy reforms are needed:

1. the federal government should offer GP clinics an alternative to pure fee-for-service funding. 
2. in the ‘GP deserts’, the federal government should fund Primary Health Networks to close the gaps in care.