Higher rebates for specialist attendances ‘off the table’ despite $141 average gap fee
Mark Butler says, instead of rebate rises, he is focused on 'providing patients with better information'.
The Minister for Health and Aged Care has shot down a suggestion he could raise rebates for non-GP specialists to stop out-of-pocket costs spiralling further out of control.
The average out-of-pocket cost for a non-bulk-billed specialist attendance was $141 in the first three months of 2025, government data show, up from $129 in the same quarter of 2023 and up from $96 in the same quarter of 2020.
Gap fees tend to spike early in the year, but the average gap for specialist attendances across the past 12 months was still $124.
At a press conference on Thursday to mark 1.5 million presentations to urgent care centres, a journalist pointed out that Mark Butler had said he wanted to tackle specialist out-of-pocket costs.
