New statistics from Cleanbill show that not a single GP clinic in Brisbane is taking in new bulk-billing patients.
Federal Member for Brisbane, Stephen Bates, has today launched a campaign to get Labor to act on the health crisis - calling for the bulk-billing incentive to be tripled for everyone with a Medicare Card and to establish more bulk-billing Urgent Care Clinics in Brisbane.
The 2025 Cleanbill report released this month shows that Brisbane is one of just fifteen federal electorates in Australia which have no available bulk-billing clinics for new patients.
Brisbane constituents pay the highest average out-of-pocket fee for seeing a GP in Queensland at $50.62 per consultation.
The complete absence of any new bulk-billing availability is a massive burden on our healthcare system, with Brisbane residents now facing a crisis of access and affordability for primary healthcare.
This morning, Stephen wrote to federal Health Minister Mark Butler - alongside his Greens colleagues Elizabeth Watson-Brown and Max Chandler-Mather - calling on him to adopt the Greens' plan to tripe the bulk-billing incentive, and to establish new bulk-billing Urgent Care Clinics here in Brisbane at this year's budget.
As stated by Stephen Bates MP, Federal MP for Brisbane
In a rich country like ours, no one should be putting off a medical appointment because it's too expensive to see the GP. But that's exactly what's happening here in Brisbane.
People are putting off seeing a GP until they have a laundry list of conditions to talk about - or they're putting it off entirely. That's putting more pressure on emergency rooms at a time our hospitals are already struggling.
I've had 1,300 locals reach out to my office needing help to access healthcare since I was elected three years ago.
They've told me they are skipping appointments and delaying receiving crucial test results because they simply can't afford the out of pocket cost.
GPs being harder to access means more people turning up at emergency rooms for care they could have gotten earlier elsewhere. GPs being more expensive means people are spending less on preventative healthcare like going to the dentist or keeping up with physical therapies. This is squeezing our whole health system and driving us towards a dark place where only the richest few can afford the care they need.
I got involved in politics after a working holiday in the USA, where my friends and I had to raise money to make sure a coworker could afford the insulin she needed.
I made a promise to myself that I'd do everything I could to stop Australia from going down that same dark path.
But the Cleanbill statistics released this month show a total collapse of access to affordable health services in Brisbane.
The thousands of Brisbane locals who can't afford to see their local GP anymore need to have access to healthcare outside of the emergency department. It's just common sense.
