Luke speaks with James Gillespie, Founder of Cleanbill, to discuss their groundbreaking ‘Health of the Nation’ Report and Electorate Breakdown.

The Report and Breakdown show the results from surveying 6,363 GP clinics; every single one Cleanbill could find in Australia.

Mr Gillespie says this is the only comprehensive survey of GP availabilities and billing practices ever conducted in Australia and the key findings of the Report reveal a gaping hole in our universal healthcare system:

1. Only 35.1% of GP clinics now bulk bill, significantly lower than the 82% claimed by the Commonwealth Government.
2. There are only 36 federal electorates where the number of bulk billing GP clinics exceed the number that charge an out-of-pocket fee. No federal electorates have a 100% bulk billing rate but there are 4 electorates (Fairfax, Franklin, Mayo and Newcastle) where bulk billing as a practice has ceased to exist.
3. Average out-of-pocket costs at the almost 65% of clinics that do not bulk bill sit at $40.42 for a standard, 15-minute consultation, higher than the $39.75 Medicare rebate already paid for this length of consultation.
4. Over 1 in 10 clinics surveyed were not taking on new patients, further limiting people’s ability to access primary care in their area.

This is the first report to show the true extent of just how hard it is to find an affordable, available GP in Australia, and the first to provide the current national debates around the cost of living and the future of healthcare in Australia with quantitative statistics.

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