So, who is to blame for the slow erosion of patients’ GP Medicare rebates compared with the actual cost of living — and has it now been fixed?

The following graph was compiled by Professor Stephen Duckett, the former director of the Grattan Institute’s health program.

As you can see, the gap between the rebate alone for a standard consult (in a metro area) and CPI has accelerated from under Kevin Rudd’s prime ministership, through the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison years and then further still under Anthony Albanese.

Much of this was about the big Medicare Freeze, the harms of which to the standard consult have never been reversed.